Mining

Question 1

Many of the products you purchase contain deforestation metals

Answer 1

Mining and global trade
Metals & ore – Iron, gold, etc
Fossil fuels – oil, coal, gas
~$1.5 trillion
~$3.5 trillion

Question 2

Large-scale mineral extraction/production concentrated in few nations

Answer 2

China & Australia (iron, copper, lead gold), South Africa (platinum),

Question 3

Are mines replacing tropical forest?

Answer 3

Used landsat imagery
Combined with:
LIDAR images from plane
Ground-truthing 
<10,000 ha in 1999 to >50,000 ha in 2012

Question 4

Why the rapid expansion of gold mining?

Answer 4

8-fold price increase in 12 years
Major contributor to local (& national?) economies

An expansion of gold mining elsewhere in South America?

Question 5

7.8 million km2 tropical moist forest

Change in forest cover at ~1,600 gold mining sites 2001 – 2013

Answer 5

Global demand for gold is another threat for tropical forests

Question 6

MODIS images (250 m) and Random Forest Classification Create annual maps of forest cover from 2001-13 at each mine

Answer 6

Significant forest loss to gold mining

-1,680 km2

Question 7

Forest loss to other kinds of mine?

Answer 7

Low volume, high value
Gold, diamonds, coltran, etc. 
Typically mined at ‘small-scale’
Fly-in, fly-out
(Illegal) artisanals
Poor people
Environmentally destructive	

Blood diamond - mined in a war zone to finance insurgency, invading army’s effort, warlord’s activity

Question 8

High volume, low value

Carajas Iron Ore mine, Pará, Brazil 101 km railway out of Amazon

Answer 8

Iron ore, copper
Mined by large corporations (‘Majors’)
Major infrastructural investment

Most owned by Rio Tinto and AngoAmerica, and Vale

Question 9

Ecological impacts extend beyond mines

Answer 9

Mercury pollution

Question 10

Mining and deforestation

Answer 10

Direct forest loss, Minimal, but…

Minimal versus farming

Question 11

Transport & immigration

Answer 11

Expansion of roads, rail, pipelines, etc.

Access to sparsely populated regions

Land clearing and bushmeat hunting

Rush of migrant workers/artisanal miners
Geita township, Tanzania: 30,000 residents in 1999 to 120,000 in 2002

Synergies with industrial-scale agriculture

Investment, weak governance, corruption, civil unrest  “Resource Curse”

Question 12

“Resource Curse”

Answer 12

Massive investment
Weak governance
Ineffective law enforcement
Corruption
Civil unrest
Legal frameworks to protect environment subverted or totally ignored

Question 13

Where are new mines likely to be created?

Answer 13

Mapped 4,151 mineral occurrences in Central Africa (Congo)
Overlaid layers of:
forest cover
Endemic Bird Areas
Protected Areas

27% inside EBA

10% inside PA

33% inside EBA or PA
But only 154 shared
Cameroon-Gabon lowlands
Eastern DRC lowlands
Albertine Rift mountains

Question 14

Mining explosion in Africa?

Answer 14

Chinese investment in African mining
US$25.7 billion in 2000
US$103.4 billion in 2009
+ India, Brazil, Russia, Canada & Australia
230 Australian mining companies in 600 mining projects in 42 countries = US$45 billion

Question 15

Infrastructural explosion in Africa?
Development corridors and mines

Open Congo Basin, Guinea & Miombo savannahs, for farming expansion

Weng et al. 2013 Global Food Security

Answer 15

Sicomines, Dikulwe copper concession, DRC= $9 billion in roads & railways
Vale, northern coalmines, Mozambique = $4.4 billion in railways
Mbalam iron ore mine, Cameroon = 570-km railway to Atlantic coast
Belinga iron ore deposit, Gabon = 240-km railway through Congo rainforest

Question 16

Positives for conservation?

Answer 16

Large-scale mines create biodiversity set-asides
Mbalam iron mine by Dja World Heritage site, Cameroon
Poverty alleviation  positive env. outcomes
If avoid corruption and weakening governments
Improved transport networks decrease farm yield gaps  land-sparing?
Projects with low-income artisanal miners to reduce mercury pollution

Question 17

Policy options (SEE SLIDES)

Answer 17

Promote integrated land use planning for mining and associated infrastructure development

Strengthen governments’ capacities to plan, manage, and monitor the mining sector

Promote innovating mechanisms to offset impacts (offsets are a last resort, the goal is no net loss or gain in biodiversity)

Improve management of artisanal and small-scale mining
Source: Kirsten Hund, World Bank

Question 18

5. REDD+?

Answer 18

6. Identify market choke points
   Lobbying, publicity & consumer boycotts to reduce conservation losses to mining
   Five major stock exchanges where mining prospectors (“Juniors”) sell prospects to Majors
   Are these exchanges leverage points for improving environmental standards?
   External to tropics = less corruptible

Question 19

7. Post-mining forest restoration

Answer 19

Trombetas bauxite mine, Para, Brazil
Replacement of 15 cm topsoil
Replanted with ~70 native tree species
2,500 plants per ha

Question 20

Summary

Answer 20

Mining is trillion $$ industry
Will change face of tropics, esp. Africa
Direct deforestation, incl. protected areas
Transport networks, immigration, agriculture
Possible conservation positives from economic development
Policy initiatives need to be developed
imperfect but better than nothing
Scientific understanding is in its infancy