الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Mining is widely regarded as having adverse effects on environment of both magnitude and diversity. Some of these effects include erosion, formation of sinkhole, biodiversity loss and contamination of soil and groundwater by chemical from the mining process in general and open-pit mining in particular. This paper examines the environmental impacts of open-pit mining and gold extraction in Hammash Area, South Eastern Desert, Egypt. Hammash gold mine is located 60 km south of the mid Idfu – Marsa Alam road in the South Eastern Desert. It is characterized by medium height mountains dissected by large valleys (wadis), scarce of water and plants. It is occupied by very small communities of local people (Bedouin families) with their domestic animals; they usually live around shallow water wells. The main environmental components can be defined as air, water quality and soil, flora and fauna hence, various impacting factors from the mining activities in the study area were estimated. Cyanidization (heap leach) is the method of gold extraction used by the mine operators of (Hammash Misr for Gold Mines Company). The monitoring levels of cyanide in the environment are the very important part of the environmental management system that is followed by the environmental laws. In Hammash, we wanted to make sure by using soil, water and plants to measure the level of cyanide in the environment, if any. Numbers of samples were collected and analyzed before and after the cyanidization (heap leach process) in the site to clarify the levels of contamination. |