Tin Mining activities are usually carried out in populated areas like Klang Valley and the Kinta Valley in Malaysia. Furthermore, tin smelting is also carried out in populated areas like Penang and Butterworth. This is why tin mining affects people living in such areas. The main problems caused by mining are namely formation of wasteland, damage to natural drainage, pollution and the destruction of natural habitats.
Mining oftens damages lands and creates wastelands. Wastelands are lands which are not able to support crops, unstable to build industries, factories on, unsuitable for transport... in short, unuable.
Mining affects the land because during mining, large amounts of vegetations are removed to prevent obstacles to tin mining machineries which may hinder work progress. Subsequently, soil erosion occurs and this leads to the formation of large gaping holes in the ground. Rainwater fills up this hole and mining pools are formed. This mining pool contains large amounts of tailings left behind by alluvial mining which have been completely leached of most plant nutrients. These pools are therefore unable to support any forms of living things and areas like this becomes barren
Disruption to river flow refers to how a river cannot continue its original flow because of obstacles along the way. This results in flooding in the area where it occurs.
When there is heavy rainfall at an abandoned mine, the tailings are washed into rivers together with the rain. The rivers then become silted. This leads to flooding in river valleys downstream.
In hilly areas when the rain falls on great heaps of tailings, the hill slopes become unstable and landslides occur. Because of this, large amounts of soil and rock fall into riverbeds, decreasing the river capacity and causing flooding.
As a result of the above-mentioned, plant and animal habitats are often destroyed. An example of this is how mangrove and coral habitats have been damaged in parts of Malaysia, possibly as a result of tin mining near that area
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