And yet, the demand for metals continues to grow. Mining is a population issue, really. As the population of the world grows, the demand for the metals used in the technology that also continues to grow increases. Industrialization has meant more and more reliance on the mining industry, and has increased demand and, thus, the inevitable pollution that mining produces.
What technological cultures and nations have done to mitigate the impact of mining on water resources is to move mining away from home and to third world nations. The demand for, say, copper, increases as technology increases. Here in the United States, we have rich sources of copper, but do not like the results of copper mining, for the reasons described in that article. So, we obtain our copper from African and other sources, and produce it as cheaply as possible. Since the pollution that mining causes does not affect us directly, we don't really care what it does to some nation thousands of miles away.
We really don't mine copper much in the USA any longer. The ore is there, certainly, but it's next to impossible to extract those metals here. We have legislated mining for essential metals out of existence in this country, pretty much. But, there are rich resources in other parts of the world, along with cheap labor, so we have simply shifted dirty mining somewhere else.
Here's the problem: we still need those metals. Recycling helps, but is not adequate to meet growing demands. So, the mining continues, and will continue. It is possible to conduct mining and refining operations without poisoning the environment, but the cost of such clean mining is prohibitive. So, we simply don't do it. We just move the mining offshore and ignore the damage where it occurs.
Africa, South America and Asia are our sources for metals today. Do we care about polluting those places? Apparently not.
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