The Water Legacies of Conventional Mining

The impact of mining is too big to ignore in a world of oversubscribed water. This is true of conventional mining as much as – or even more than – hydraulic fracturing (fracking). The legacy issues of such mining on water have not been fully appreciated, especially the irretrievable effects mining has had on communities and ecosystems around the world through its impact on water. Yet this is not an ‘us-or-them’ problem: the wealth, influence and technical knowledge of mining interests can a...