VPE 511: Environment and Environmental Hygiene (2+1)

MINERAL RESOURCES

• Minerals are non-renewable natural resources. They occur naturally as in organic, crystalline solids with physical properties. There are thousands of minerals in the world.
• A nation’s economy depends mainly on minerals which are used by man everyday for various activities. On the basis of usage of minerals, there are two types of Human civilization namely Bronze Age and Iron Age. We extract about 74m.metric tons of iron and steel per year.
• Minerals are mainly of inorganic origin but minerals like coal, petroleum and amber are of organic origin. Industrialisation and overpopulation lead to exploitation of minerals. Environmental problems arise when mineral exploitation is pursued unscientifically by man.

Uses

• Development of Industrial plants and machinery.
• Generation of energy using coal, lignite and uranium.
• Construction, settlements and housing.
• Weapons and arnaments/ Transportation.
• Communication-Telephone wires, cables and electronic devices.
• Medical system-Ayurvedic system.
• Alloys, Jewellery (Gold, Platinum, Silver and Diamond)
• Agriculture-Fertilizers, seed dressing and fungicides

Abuses

• Minerals have been exploited by way of open cast mining (stripped of unwanted materials lying above the mineral-bearing strata cast extraction of minerals), underground mining (coal seams) and placer mining (surface mining from stream bar or beach deposits).
• U.S.A exploit huge amounts of minerals and energy resources and has become the richest nation. Japan has the most efficient technologies with with respect to coal and oil.
• In India, energy-generating minerals such as coal and lignite are found in West Bengal, Maharashtra, M.P., A.P., and Orissa. The important ore, uranium taken from uranite ore and pitchblende are found in Jharkhand, A.P. (Nellore), Megalaya and Rahasthan.
• Commercially used minerals are aluminium (bauxite ore) and iron ore (Haemetite and Magnetite), found in Jharkhand, West Bengal, Maharashtra, M.P, and Tamil Nadu. The copper pyrites (Copper ore) are found in Rajasthan, Bihar, A,P, M,P., Karnataka and West Bengal.

Environmental Impact

• Mining is a dirty industry creating largest environmental disaster zones in the world. Each step in the mining produces a lot of waste minerals which cause pollution.
• Environmental damage occurs due to the careless exploitation of minerals.
• They are as follows:
• Water pollution takes place due to washing loose materials from waste dumps near adjacent water sources. Mine drainage and coal washing operations also cause water pollution. Surface water is contaiminated by acid mine.
• Air pollution is caused by release of noxious gases such as Sulphur di-oxide (SO₂), Nitrogen di-oxide (NO₂) and carbon monoxide (CO) into the atmosphere. Hydrocarbons, suspended particulate matter, Silicon (Si),Fluoride (FL), asbestos and metallic dust are released into the atmosphere affecting the vegetation and causing health hazards.
• Noise pollution takes place due to blasting and operating of heavy machinery.
• Soil erosion and feiling of trees take place. Minerals cause diseases like silicosis, flurosis and asbestosis. The economic devaluation of the land is an important impact.

Remedial Measures

• We must follow ecofriendly mining technology. Microbes must be used in leaching technique to utilise low grade ores. Bacteria and Thiobacillus, ferruxidans are used to extract gold embedded in Iron sulphide ore. Moreover, some strains of bacteria remove impurities of ore. Growing vegetation in mined area helps to prevent the discharge of toxic drainage to minimize environmental impact.