Canadian Association for the Club of Rome
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Jamie Kneen | The Perpetual Pollution Machine: Acid Mine Drainage and Mine Waste | Apr 10, 2024 13:30 EDT
April 10 @ 13:30 - 16:00 EDT
Speaker: Jamie Kneen
Topic: The Perpetual Pollution Machine: Acid Mine Drainage and Mine Waste
Time: Apr 10, 2024 13:30 Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Abstract:
We use, and see around us, a huge bounty of mined metals, from the mundane – roads and construction – to the more refined (if you’ll pardon the pun) – high tech electronics and devices. But useful metals comprise a tiny percentage of the material that is mined, leaving hundreds of millions of tonnes of mine waste – waste rock and mill tailings – often acid-generating and/or toxic, on the surface, to be safely managed for decades, centuries, and millennia to come. Mining, then, is essentially a waste management industry, and its impacts on water only begin with the diversion, consumption, and contamination of water from mine operations and extend through time and space as potentially perpetual pollution as well as a latent threat of catastrophic contamination and destruction in the event of a containment dam failure. This presentation will address the scope and the implications of this problem in the context of mining being widely and self-interestedly promoted as necessary for the transition to renewable energy to address the climate crisis.
Bio:
Jamie Kneen is Canada Program Co-Lead and Outreach Coordinator leads Mining Watch’s work on mining policy development and individual mining projects in western and northern Canada, leading policy reform and providing strategic and technical support to communities affected by mineral exploration and mining projects. With a degree in Biology (ecology) from McGill University, Jamie has been involved with environmental and resource management issues, including mining, frequently related to indigenous land rights, for many years.