Mining Hazards

Primary reference(s)

UNDP and UN Environment, 2018. Managing Mining for Sustainable Development: A sourcebook. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Accessed 12 October 2020.

Additional scientific description

Over recent decades, mining has generated considerable wealth, reduced poverty in developing countries, and improved quality of life through the provision of natural resources. Although mining has considerable benefits, this industry can have harmful impacts on people, society, and the environment (Donelly, 2018). The most common mining hazards include but are not limited to ground collapse, subsidence, fault reactivation and fissures, mine water rebound, acid mine water drainage, mine gas emissions, and combustion. Other notable hazards are mining-induced landslides, mining-induced seismicity, waste, dereliction, and contamination. Although potentially foreseeable, mining hazards cannot necessarily be forecast or predicted in terms of their timing, location, duration, magnitude, and extent. Mining hazards can occur in isolation or as groups of hazards occurring simultaneously (Donelly, 2018).

To prevent mining hazards occurring, monitoring and site inspections are recommended prior to, during, immediately after and long after mineral production ceases and a mine is abandoned (Donelly, 2018).

Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) has experienced substantial growth in recent years, largely due to the increasing value of mineral prices and additional sources of income, particularly in Africa and Latin America. Despite being low in productivity, ASM is an important source of minerals and metals and accounts for approximately 20% of the global gold supply and 20% of the global diamond supply. In 2017, 40.5 million people are estimated to have been involved within this sector. The most recent estimates are for about 9 million ASM operators in Africa and about 54 million people whose livelihoods depend on the sector (IGF, 2017). However, The Africa Minerals Development Centre considers this a ‘conservative estimate’, citing an important lack of data on ASM, as the activity is often informal and mostly operates illegally in several African countries. The Latin America ASM sector has strict regulations on informal operators and the use of certain substances but has limited capacity to implement these regulations. It is particularly difficult to control informal mining where there are large numbers of miners; such as in Colombia, where about 87% of 4134 Colombian gold mining operations are illegal and 95% of all the gold mines have no environmental permit (IGF, 2017).

Perceptions of ASM activity vary from country to country. Stakeholders often tend to vilify artisanal and small-scale mining because of its informal nature and hazardous characteristics, with significant health and safety risks as well as susceptibility to social conflict and human rights violations (Barreto, 2011).

The use of hazardous substances in mining puts the health of miners and their communities at risk – they are exposed, for example, to mercury, zinc vapour, cyanide, or other acids. This is a particular concern in artisanal gold mining, where mercury is frequently deployed and cyanide use is growing. Other health concerns include inhaling dust and fine particles from blasting and drilling processes causing respiratory diseases such as silicosis or pneumoconiosis in men and women, and in the children who often accompany their parents a lack of ear protection to filter noise from equipment such as drills or crushers can cause temporary or permanent hearing loss and speech interference (ILO, 2014).

Concrete actions started in 2018 with a focus on formalisation, establishing gold-buying schemes, capacity building at the national level on mercury-free technologies, awareness raising and knowledge sharing. Governments need to adopt a progressive approach to eliminating the use of hazardous chemicals.

Metrics and numeric limits

Not available.

Examples of drivers, outcomes and risk management

Mineworkers face a constantly changing combination of workplace circumstances. Some work in an atmosphere without natural light or ventilation, creating voids in the earth by removing material and trying to ensure that there will be no immediate reaction from the surrounding strata. Despite the efforts in many countries, the toll of death, injury and disease among the world’s mineworkers means that, in most countries, mining remains the most hazardous occupation when the number of people exposed to risk is taken into account (ILO, 2015).

Although only accounting for 1% of the global workforce, mining is responsible for about 8% of fatal accidents at work. No reliable data exist on injuries, but they are significant, as is the number of workers affected by such disabling occupational diseases as pneumoconiosis, hearing loss and the effects of vibration (ILO, 2015). In some countries, many more people are employed in small-scale, often informal, mining than in the formal mining sector. Many of these jobs are precarious and are far from conforming with international and national labour standards. Accident rates in small-scale mines are routinely six or seven times higher than in larger operations, even in industrialised countries. A special problem is the employment of children (IGF, 2017).

The Global Environment Facility has developed the Global Opportunities for Long-term Development of ASGM Sector (GEF GOLD) which is an important funding body for projects on ASM and hazardous substances. In 2016, the Global Opportunities for Long-term Development (GEF GOLD) was launched to support the phasing out of mercury use in artisanal and small-scale gold mining and reduce environmental health and safety risks in the sector. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) is one of the main organisations in charge of implementing the project. Eight countries will benefit: Burkina Faso, Colombia, Guyana, Indonesia, Kenya, Mongolia, Peru and the Philippines (GEF, 2017).