Environmental impacts assessment of tash bauxite mine in semnan province, northern iran

Abstract

Mineral resources and mining are the pillars of development in any country. Mining development must be performed based on the pillars of sustainable development to prevent the damage to water, soil, air, plants, wildlife and social life of local communities by exploiting valuable minerals and economic development. Lack of attention towards the pillars of sustainable development in the long-term can turn into serious damages to environment and social life of local communities. There would probably be needed to spend multiple times more than the added value earned by the mineral production in order to recompense the environmental and social damages caused by unauthorized mining. Therefore, from the late 2001 the beginning of mining activities in the Bauxite mine of the village of Tash has caused challenges for the environment, natural resources and social issues. Some of the most important of which are loss of water reserves in the region, the pollution of ground and surface waters, soil erosion, susceptibility of the region to dust, loss of vegetation and rangelands, the endangerment of wildlife, flooding due to inappropriate tailings depot. This paper addresses to the causes of these pollutions and how to stop further damages of the process.