Ecology of a hypersaline gold mining tailings facility in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia: a case study

Smith, Greg; Donato, D.; Gillespie, Craig; Griffiths, Stephen R.; Rowntree, Jennifer K.

doi:10.1080/17480930701630841

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Bats are also known to fly and possibly forage/drink over gold mines in Australia (Donato and Smith 2007;Smith et al 2008). High bat activity was recorded over gold mine water bodies containing cyanide (Griffiths et al 2014a).…”

Section: Miningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bats and Water: Anthropogenic Alterations Threaten Global Bat Populations

Korine

Adams

Russo

et al. 2015

Bats in the Anthropocene: Conservation of Bats in a Changing World

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Natural bodies of open water in desert landscapes, such as springs and ephemeral pools, and the plant-life they support, are important resources for the survival of animals in hyper arid, arid and semi-arid (dryland) environments. Human-made artificial water sources, i.e. waste-water treatment ponds, catchments and reservoirs, have become equally important for wildlife in those areas. Bodies of open water are used by bats either for drinking and/or as sites over which to forage for aquatic emergent insects. Due to the scarcity of available water for replenishing water losses during roosting and flight, open bodies of water of many shapes and sizes may well be a key resource influencing the survival,

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Section: Miningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bats and Water: Anthropogenic Alterations Threaten Global Bat Populations

Korine

Adams

Russo

et al. 2015

Bats in the Anthropocene: Conservation of Bats in a Changing World

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“… Although not found at all mine sites, we found little evidence of rehabilitation of tailings dams and TSFs, with most appearing to be completely bare. This may reflect the difficultly in revegetation of this novel environment given the physical and chemical stresses associated with the fine sediment in these dams (Smith et al 2008). There were also clear breaches of these dams with sediment spreading into adjoining native vegetation.…”

Section: Rehabilitation Of Mines In Care and Maintenancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the goldfields regions of Western Australia, TSFs are ubiquitous structures and are often found at gold mines, with some as large as 300 ha in area (Smith et al 2008). TSFs ( Figure 3) often attract a wide range of vertebrate species, particularly birds as they appear to provide a food and water source (Smith et al 2008), but this may result in poisoning of wildlife and livestock by cyanide-laced water (Griffiths et al 2009). TSF, also have the potential to contaminate groundwater resources (Abdalla et al 2010;Hilson 2002), particularly when gold mines are not active and operating in arid environments (Abdalla et al 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pitfalls of gold mine sites in care and maintenance

Ashby¹,

Etten²,

Lund³

2016

Proceedings of the International Conference on Mine Closure

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Gold is a highly valued and volatile commodity which is subject to many external forces, such as price and availability. Global gold stocks are increasing but the supply is dwindling. Gold mining companies are always looking for novel methods to optimise extraction and processing thereby reducing operating costs and maximising profit. The extraction and processing of gold involves complex chemical processing which results in large volumes of waste, including toxic tailings, and damage to aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Our research indicates that gold mines in Western Australia regularly enter an operational phase known as 'care and maintenance' where active mining is not occurring but the site is not yet formally closed. It is a mode generally used to reduce operating costs and overheads, whilst maintaining the option to recommence mining in the future. Sites in care and maintenance are often neglected and minimal rehabilitation is undertaken resulting in massive environmental liabilities and social issues. In worst case scenarios, companies simply mothball the site and they become abandoned or legacy sites. We recently quantified the disturbance footprint and environmental legacies around a representative sample of gold mines in the West Australian Goldfields region. Our results suggest that sites in care and maintenance are a potential emerging problem for regulators left carrying the can for the costs of rehabilitation.

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“…Suchanek, Eagles- Smith et al (2008) determined that the mercury methylation process is mostly decoupled from the bulk inorganic mercury loading due to several factors include: (1) and extractable concentrations of seven metals in wetland sediments receiving AMD were studied by Das and Maiti (2008). The levels were higher in the wetland sediments than in the dry tailings.…”

Section: The Journal Ecological Applications Devoted Itsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Minerals and Mine Drainage

Liang¹,

Thomson²

2009

Water Environment Research

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A review of literature published in 2008 and early 2009 on research related to the production of acid mine drainage and/or in the dissolution of minerals as a result of mining, with special emphasis on the effects of these phenomena on the water quality in the surrounding environment, is presented. This review is divided into six sections: 1) Site Characterization and Assessment, 2) Protection, Prevention, and Restoration, 3) Toxicity Assessment, 4) Environmental Fate and Transport, 5) Biological Characterization, and 6) Treatment Technologies. Because there is much overlap in research areas associated with minerals and mine drainage, many papers presented in this review can be classified into more than one category, and the six sections should not be regarded as being mutually–exclusive, nor should they be thought of as being all–inclusive.

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Ecology of a hypersaline gold mining tailings facility in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia: a case study

Cited by 9 publications

References 9 publications

Bats and Water: Anthropogenic Alterations Threaten Global Bat Populations

Bats and Water: Anthropogenic Alterations Threaten Global Bat Populations

Pitfalls of gold mine sites in care and maintenance

Minerals and Mine Drainage

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