34. Mining

Which of the following negative impacts of mining involves rainwater seeping through piles of overburden, creating sulfuric acid?

Acid mine drainage

Acid mine drainage

Acidic water that seeps from piles of mine tailings as water in the environment reacts with acid-forming substances in the tailings waste

Which of the following describes the practice of drift mining?

Digging a tunnel into the side of a mountain, often involving explosives

Surface mining

Extracting earth materials from just below the surface

Subsurface mining

Extracting materials from deep underground

Mine reclamation involves reopening a mine that was previously to be void of useful minerals

False

The majority of mining in the U.S. is subsurface mining

False

Which of the following environmental impacts of mining could result in damage to buildings, including tilting, foundation cracking and disruption of utility lines?

Land subsidence

Valley fills

Piles of material removed from a mountain during mountaintop removal mining and sent downhill in large piles

Spoils

Piles of waste overburden, often piled up on the ground adjacent to a mine

Mining

Process of extracting valuable rocks and minerals from beneath the Earth's surface

The Surface Mine Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) states that coal mining companies must do which of the following?

Restore most surface mined land by grading and replanting it

Ore

Rock that contains a volume of economically profitable minerals

Overburden

The material removed in a surface mining process, such as topsoil and rocks that lay over the ore material

Tailings

The waste material produced after an ore is processed to get the desired mineral out

Drift mining

Type of subsurface mining that involves digging a tunnel through the side of a mountain

Shaft mining

Type of subsurface mining that involves excavating a tunnel from the surface downward to access minerals or coal deep underground

Hard rock mining

Type of subsurface mining that involves excavating deep underground tunnels and making underground rooms supported by pillars of rock

Mountaintop removal

Type of surface mining that involves blasting the top off a mountain to expose coal

Strip mining

Type of surface mining that involves digging in long parallel strips, one after the other

Open-pit mining

Type of surface mining that involves digging large open holes at the ground surface