Abstract
Nigeria is endowed with abundant mineral resources. However, their extraction and processing through mining activities especially, of the solid minerals are going on at different scales of intensity. Some of these operations, and their negative impacts to the environment which include: land degradation, ecological disruption giving rise to air, land and water pollution and death of flora and fauna, etc often go on unchecked. These disturbing situations and means to minimize them have surprisingly not been taken seriously because of lack of regulatory implementation impetus or due to the little revenue accruing from these resources which is not even meaningful to be reflected in the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It is in this regard, that the paper critically reviewed the state of mineral exploitation in Nigeria, its adverse effects on the environment and associated health hazards, including the strategies for hazard reduction, and conservation of mined-out areas. From this review study, it was feared that natural catastrophes such as earthquake and volcanic eruptions - occasioned by possible geomorphological and geostatic equilibrium destabilization may be imminent in the country as a result of these mining activities. It was therefore recommended that a holistic approach to evaluating hazards represented by different kinds of mine waste be put in place by adopting remote sensing and Geographical Information System (GIS) in assessing environmental impact of mining and its new developments. Keywords: Solid mineral, Impact assessment, Mined-out area utilization, Economic resources, Database creation and Environmental sustainability
Highlights
Mineral resources are important natural assets of a nation, and palaeontological evidence and information have shown that since man's very beginning, minerals have been taken from the earth and used to make more of life
It was feared that natural catastrophes such as earthquake and volcanic eruptions - occasioned by possible geomorphological and geostatic equilibrium destabilization may be imminent in the country as a result of these mining activities
Current mines can he planned to minimize the amounts of hazardous wastes they produce, but for historical mines, where waste already exists, some kind of remedial action may be required. Hazards from such existing wastes can be reduced by using one or more of many strategies. These strategies include removing the waste to a locality where it will constitute a lower hazard, or containing it using engineered barriers such as tailings dams, reed beds, geomembranes or clay barriers
Summary
Mineral resources are important natural assets of a nation, and palaeontological evidence and information have shown that since man's very beginning, minerals have been taken from the earth and used to make more of life. These strategies include removing the waste to a locality where it will constitute a lower hazard (e.g. the dumping of toxic waste at Koko, in Delta State, Nigeria by an Italian Firm some years ago), or containing it using engineered barriers such as tailings dams, reed beds, geomembranes or clay barriers These measures, Metcalfe et al (1998) may not be feasible where wastes arise from largescale historical mining in developing countries with scarce resources. The incessant flooding of the Victoria Island, Lagos is attributed to as a possible indication of the fact that Nigeria may be witnessing some earth movements beneath the ocean floor This may have arisen from mining activities in conjunction with seismic and hydrothermal processes whose impacts are not always localized but may produce long range, endogenous multi-temporal and spatial dimensional effects outside the vicinity of operation. On Wednesday 16th of June, 2004, the Minister for Solid Mineral Resources decried the extensive devastation of the environment in Niger State as a result of illegal mining of gemstone, sapphire and gold, as well as capital flight as a result (reported during NTA Network News at 9.00 p.m.)
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