World-wide Mining Predicaments

In his three-part series, Dr Buck Emberg presents a balanced examination of both the need for mining and the environmental consequences of extracting minerals. He explains that mining has been a human activity since before the Stone Age and will remain so in the future. He contends that mining is here to stay, and we must learn to live with mines and mining companies must learn to be better corporate citizens. The articles do not present an either/or approach to mining. Nor do they take sides. At the end of the series, the reader will have a clearer view of the worldwide dilemma facing both humanity and the mining industry.

These articles use the tool of ‘extrapolation’. For instance, a person who has lived for eighty years, who is educated and worked in a variety of jobs will have amassed a large body of experiences and opinions. Such a person will inevitably draw from his/her experience and knowledge to extrapolate conclusions. From these conclusions, decisions can be made. However, these extrapolations may be incorrect depending on 1.the accuracy of information gathered 2.the proper interpretation of the information and 3.the correct use of the data to make decisions and/or policies. Unfortunately, it is possible to amass great bodies of information and then extrapolate (guess), only to follow up with wrongful decisions. This is a plight of humanity.

For instance, the drinking water of many small Northern Tasmanian towns is contaminated with lead, cadmium and other elements. Blame is easily awarded. Do these contaminants come from century-old mining techniques, dire forestry practices or appalling farming techniques? The answer probably relates to all three. There is no empirical reason why Tasmania, with its abundant water resources, should not have some of the finest drinking waters in the world. Sound judgments and good policies for the future must evolve and develop logically. However, governments do not always function logically. Given a barrage of information, a government is likely to arrive at two or more disparate conclusions and, hence, opposing decisions. Political groups involved in the Tasmanian water debacle (and the mining question) are likely to interpret the issues differently and develop divergent policies. Such practices may result in either weakened policies or, more likely, no decision being made at all.

In addition to the questions concerning water and mining, debates about forestry, jobs and a proposed pulp mill have raged in Tasmania. Pulp mill proponents gathered thousands of pages of good and accurate scientific data in order to prove their case that a pulp mill would benefit the community, be an ongoing financial success and, therefore, create jobs. Properly, the proponents consulted hundreds of experts from many nations and disciplines: water, economics, environmental, business. In addition, a number of corporations were questioned. However, difficulties involving the unbiased nature of the information gained momentum within the Tasmanian community. Had the proponents of the mill gathered enough contrary information in order to be sure their paradigms were accurate? The pro-mill people developed a business model that appeared to be perfectly accurate in its simplicity. In its rush to build the project, the company may have been biased in choosing its information sources; hence, errors appeared. Simple logic explains that it is also possible the proponents’ information was correct and the opponents’ information was flawed. Further logic states the opposite: hence an impasse.

The effect of political decisions is usually felt from the top down, resulting in divisions between the warring factions. Information gathered by those opposing the mill was equally valid. Both sides were certain theirs was correct. Unfortunately, gathering data to prove a case is neither good engineering nor sound philosophical practice; neither does it lead to an unbiased conclusion. Such examination will only weaken decision-making. When both proponents and opponents use data to support their ideas, suspicion and disagreement is the result. For the opponents many hundreds of scientists, agrarians, farmers, citizens, water experts, smoke pollution experts, economists and historians developed a model which stated and ‘proved’ quite simply that ‘under no circumstances will we allow a pulp mill in the Tamar Valley’. This is classic ‘blind-siding’.

The present mining debates have the same flaws. Companies, gathering data to prove their business models, operate in a precarious manner. However, those involved in mining conflicts are human and dogged by the same blunders that have been made for centuries. By way of further illustration, wars would no longer take place if we had learned from past mistakes. It is hardly uplifting to realise that Americans have fought forty wars since the 1776 Revolution. Humans do not seem able to learn enough from past errors. Why? Because we are, as early Greeks and philosopher/theologians have taught, simul justus et peccator; which means roughly speaking, ‘at the same instant good and bad’. Does this mean that wars will continue and conflict in mining and organisations will stay measurably equal? Probably.

In the second part of this article, I will briefly use personal experiences and studies to give my observations concerning some problems of mining.
‘Look down there…you can see the shell holes. They almost merge into one. Imagine being there during the attacks.’ We were flying over the World War I battlefield of Verdun, France, with professor-friend Albert. ‘It reminds me of the strip mining fields of my childhood in Illinois. Companies came, stripped the fertile farm soil, took the coal and left. What remains is some of the poorest land in the US. Now the fertile top soil lies buried beneath the overburden.’

It is my turn to remember. I grew up in the mining country of Northern Minnesota. My entire family had left the fading coalmines of Pennsylvania some decades before and, being lured by rumour of a newly discovered iron ore body in the north, migrated to help excavate the largest hole in the world: the Hull Rust-Mahoning Mine. Workers were taught to take great pride in this fact. I remember how the city of South Hibbing was demolished to make way for the growing hole. The mine is now four km long, three km wide, 175 m deep and still growing. Unstable mountains of overburden are still dangerous. Scores of mines have ‘played out’ and many former towns that once knew glory days have melded into the wilderness or been by-passed, leaving many pensioners and poor people behind. Isolating the disadvantaged is a worldwide mining phenomenon. Most former open cut mines have become water-filled ‘lakes’, some still flood while some are not capable of maintaining aquatic life.

The worst mine disaster, in my memory, is the 1966 Aberfan collapse of a collier spoil tip (overburden mountain) in Wales, in which 116 children and 28 adults died. The company and UK Coal Board were blamed for extreme negligence, .

Tasmania also has its holes in the ground, some filled with water. Mines that once flourished have declined, leaving former boom towns like Beaconsfield semi-impoverished or, simply, non-existent like Storys Creek. Environments have been destroyed like the once rain-forested hills around Queenstown and Zeehan that now stand naked and eroded. A short trip behind St Helens reveals hundreds of mounds of overburden left behind by dozens of tin mines which have stripped the area of soil, silted rivers and polluted ground water. Continue to Pioneer and walk the tortured trails, the aftermath of many former mines, and try to find the town. Only traces exist. Travel to Golconda where as many as 5,000 people lived during the boom days of the early 1900’s. Joan and I built our house there some twenty years ago only to discover that we could not walk on our own property because of the many abandoned mineshafts. Now only about ten people live in the locale. At least friend George was able to use the mine shaft next to his house as a personal rubbish tip.

For the most part, miners and mining companies of past centuries simply abandoned the diggings when the ore supply was exhausted, leaving behind a tormented landscape, diminished soils and clogged waterways. A global search will reveal a plundered planet: the Salton Sea, California, Victoria, Australia and all Mediterranean countries. One can add China and South Africa…the list is almost endless. Humankind has not changed its behavior pattern. Can we expect different conduct in the future? Probably not.

Part III raises the questions surrounding ‘sustainability’ and possible solutions for the future.

Buck Emberg holds a PhD degree in Tasmanian History

• Earlier on Tasmanian Times, Part 1: What Mining Executives Do Not Tell Us