News Articles : Displaying 121-123 of 123
| Should I wear newly mined gold? by Lucy Siegle, Observer April 1st, 2007 Every commodity seems to have a gold sobriquet now: green gold is biofuel, white gold is cotton, black gold either coffee or oil and even bananas are being referred to as yellow gold. All, of course, commodities hoping to emulate real gold's famous ability to hold its value and keep the world turning; however chaotic the economic environment it remains a symbol of stability. Some 140,000 tonnes sit around in bank vaults while just 2,500 tonnes is mined each year. Unfortunately, even mining this quantity of gold causes a disproportionate amount of ecological chaos. Firstly, open-cast mining - bear in mind some of the largest gold reserves are visible from space - uses cyanide poured on to the land, which draws out not just gold but also toxic substances such as arsenic. And while this should be a closed process, in reality the result is widespread contamination of the surrounding environment. Then there's the problem with mercury. Just last month a new University of Nevada report found 'startlingly high' concentrations of the substance in the air around Northern Nevada's gold mines (www.getthemercuryout.org). |
| Philippines Orders Cleanup of Mines Before Rains by Dolly Aglay, REUTERS NEWS SERVICE MANILA - The Philippines said on Tuesday it had ordered owners of two mining areas in the country to clean up and improve their infrastructures before the start of the rainy season. |
| Officials stall on delivering water to users of contaminated wells by Kathy Helms, Gallup Independent March 9th, 2006 Results of groundwater sampling conducted in September 2005 by New Mexico Environment Department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency show contaminants in 33 of 34 residential wells sampled, including elevated levels of uranium in 21 of those wells. |
