Causes and Effects of Mining: Key Impacts With Data

Mining grows because the world wants more metals and minerals, and its effects land first on forests, water, air and the communities next to the site. Satellite mapping of 2019 imagery found 101,583 km² of land used for mining across 44,929 mapped areas, and the World Bank expects output of graphite, lithium and cobalt to rise by nearly 500% by 2050 if the world follows a pathway that keeps warming below 2°C. This guide is written for consultants, licence holders and analysts who need the causes and effects of mining with numbers, a source and a date next to each one. It covers five causes, the measured effects on land, water, air and health, the tailings risk, the responses that have evidence behind them, and a screening routine for a licence area, plus a tailings estimator you can run with your own inputs.

Terms used below. Ore is rock that can be mined at a profit, and ore grade is the share of metal in it. Tailings are the finely ground waste left after the metal is separated; they are stored behind dams or stacked dry. Acid mine drainage is acidic water that forms when rain meets sulfur-bearing rock. ASGM means artisanal and small-scale gold mining. This page gives facts from the sources named. It is not legal, environmental or investment advice.

What causes mining to expand

No single cause explains the growth of mining. Five drivers show up repeatedly in the research, and each one has a measurable signal.

1. Demand for metals in energy and infrastructure

The World Bank estimated that more than 3 billion tons of minerals and metals would be needed to build the wind, solar, geothermal and storage capacity of a below-2°C pathway. The same report put the carbon footprint of producing those clean-energy technologies, from extraction to end use, at only 6% of the greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel technologies, and said recycling matters but cannot cover the gap on its own: even a 100% rise in copper and aluminium recycling rates would not meet the demand (World Bank, 11 May 2020). Demand for these materials is a main driver of new mining. In a global map of mining and biodiversity, 82% of mining areas target materials used for renewable energy (Sonter and others, Nature Communications, 2020).

2. Falling ore grades

When ore grade drops, a mine must move and process more rock for the same metal. For copper mining in Chile, fuel use per unit of mined copper rose 130% and electricity use rose 32% between 2001 and 2017, largely because of falling ore grade (Azadi and others, Nature Geoscience, 2020). Lower grades therefore raise the energy and rock-handling cost of each tonne of metal.

3. Small-scale and informal gold mining

Mining is not only large pits. The global mining-area map shows that in the Amazon rain forest the mapped mining areas are primarily small-scale gold mining, while northern Chile is mainly copper and Indonesia’s East Kalimantan is coal (Maus and others, Scientific Data, 2022). Small-scale gold mining is also the largest single source of human-caused mercury emissions, covered in the health section below.

4. Infrastructure and people that follow the mine

Roads, other infrastructure and towns bring more clearing than the lease itself. A study of the Brazilian Amazon found that mining-induced deforestation was 12 times larger than the clearing inside mining leases, and named infrastructure, urban expansion for a growing workforce and mineral supply chains as the pathways (Sonter and others, Nature Communications, 2017).

5. Licensing that counts only the lease

The same Amazon study concluded that off-lease impacts are neglected in environmental licensing. When a permit looks only inside the boundary, the wider footprint is not priced into the decision. Our guide to mining cadastre portals by country shows where licence boundaries can be checked before you assess a site.

Land, forests and wildlife

A note on reading the area figures: the second version of the global mining-area dataset covers almost twice the area of the first (101,583 km² against 57,277 km²), but the authors attribute the jump to a much wider search that included sites with no reported production, so it is not a measure of how fast mining grew.

Chart

Share of the mining influence zone that overlaps conservation areas

% of 50 million km² potentially influenced by mining (impacts assumed to reach 50 km from mine sites)

The footprint inside the fence is the smaller part of the effect. Mapped mining land use is concentrated: 52% of the mapped area sits in six countries (Russia, China, Australia, the United States, Indonesia and Brazil), another 21 countries hold 39%, and the remaining 118 countries share 9% (Maus and others, 2022). Russia has the largest mapped area at 11,770.93 km², followed by China at 10,364.57 km².

The wider zone of influence is far larger. Sonter and others estimated that mining potentially influences 50 million km² of land, taking impacts to reach 50 km from mine sites, which is 37% of land excluding Antarctica. Of that zone, 8% overlaps protected areas, 7% overlaps Key Biodiversity Areas (sites that matter most for species survival) and 16% overlaps remaining wilderness (Nature Communications, 2020). The authors add that areas overlapping protected areas and wilderness hold a higher density of mines where the target is a material used in renewable energy, and that careful strategic planning is needed so that mining threats do not outweigh the threats avoided by climate action.

For forests, the best-measured case is the Brazilian Amazon. Mining raised forest loss up to 70 km beyond lease boundaries and caused 11,670 km² of deforestation between 2005 and 2015, 9% of all Amazon forest loss in that period. Two caveats apply. This is one region and one decade, so it should not be read as a global share. The figure also does not count other uses of land that happen to sit near mines.

Land competition is a planning issue, not a single number. When a licence overlaps farmland, grazing land or a protected area, the question is what can legally coexist. Our gold mine due diligence checklist covers title and land-access checks before purchase.

▶ Shows a survey where 59% of the anomalous ground sat under a town, an example of land access blocking mining of good rock. · 2:05

Water use and pollution

Mining affects water in two ways: it can pollute it, and it uses it. On pollution, the US Environmental Protection Agency describes acid mine drainage as highly acidic water rich in heavy metals that forms when surface and shallow subsurface water reacts with rocks containing sulfur-bearing minerals, producing sulfuric acid that can leach metals from the rock. The agency lists it as the most prevalent of three kinds of abandoned mine drainage, alongside alkaline mine drainage and metal mine drainage, and says the fluids may be highly toxic to people, animals and plants when they mix with groundwater, surface water and soil.

Chart

Water use of Chilean copper mining by source

Cubic metres per second; 2034 is a forecast; other sources = total minus seawater

On use, the clearest dated numbers come from Chilean copper. The state copper commission Cochilco expects total water consumption by miners to rise from 18.5 cubic metres per second in 2024 to 20.6 by 2034, with seawater growing from 40.7% to 67.6% of the total (Reuters report on the Cochilco study, 18 March 2026). Many Chilean mines are in the Atacama desert, where critics say water-intensive processes worsen shortages for farmers and communities; the same report notes that environmentalists warn desalination needs a lot of energy and can harm marine ecosystems.

Air, climate and health

Mining and metal production add to climate emissions through diesel for haul trucks, electricity for grinding and the decomposition of carbonate minerals. Azadi and others estimated that greenhouse gas emissions from primary mineral and metal production were equivalent to about 10% of global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions in 2018. That figure covers primary production of the minerals and metals, not only the mines.

Chart

Largest sources of human-caused mercury emissions to air

% of human-caused mercury emissions, four largest sectors (UNEP 2018 assessment)

The clearest health effect with a global number is mercury. Artisanal and small-scale gold miners use mercury to capture gold. The US EPA, quoting the 2018 UN Environment Programme assessment, reports that ASGM is the largest source of human-caused mercury emissions at 37.7%, ahead of coal combustion (21%), non-ferrous metal production (15%) and cement (11%). The World Health Organization calls mercury use in ASGM particularly hazardous, with significant effects on vulnerable populations, and recommends promoting non-mercury, non-cyanide gold extraction methods.

Tailings: the waste stream with the failure risk

Every concentrator produces tailings, and most of the ore ends up there. In a worked example with a 0.5% Cu ore, 85% recovery and a 25% Cu concentrate, about 98% of the rock mass leaves the plant as tailings. The risk is a dam failure. Before 2020 there was little public data on how many dams exist. The Global Tailings Portal, launched in January 2020 by GRID-Arendal with investor groups, lists more than 1,800 dams based on disclosures from over 100 of the largest mining companies, and notes that estimates of the true number of tailings dams range from 3,500 to 33,000.

In response, the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management was published on 5 August 2020. It has six topic areas, 15 principles and 77 auditable requirements, and the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) says all its members committed to implement it, with facilities of ‘extreme’ or ‘very high’ potential consequence due to conform by 5 August 2023 and all other facilities not in safe closure by 5 August 2025. Both dates have passed; ICMM publishes a progress report on member conformance. The portal’s 2020 plan for a second phase included a test of remote monitoring of dams with radar satellites.

The estimator below turns your own project numbers into a first-pass tailings tonnage, volume and storage footprint. Use it at the scoping stage to see how much waste a plan creates before a designer sizes any dam.

Causes, effects and responses at a glance

How to use the table: the figures come from different years and regions and are not additive. Read each row as a pointer to the source, then check whether the region and period match your project.

▶ Explains the seven environmental impacts of mining in plain words as a claymation, with satellite maps. · 2:31

Solutions that have evidence behind them

• Plan where mines go. The mapped overlap with protected areas, Key Biodiversity Areas and wilderness is the reason Sonter and others call for strategic planning before mining expands for energy metals.
• Widen the licence test. The Amazon study recommends that assessments consider both on-lease and off-lease deforestation.
• Adopt the tailings standard and disclose dams. The standard’s 77 requirements and the public portal are the two measures with a published scope and dates.
• Replace mercury. WHO recommends non-mercury, non-cyanide gold extraction and safer work practices where mercury is still used.
• Report emissions. Azadi and others argue that transparent reporting by miners and regulators is the base for any mitigation plan.
• Use recycling, but not alone. The World Bank says recycling is important and still not enough to meet clean-energy demand.
• Treat polluted water at source. The EPA’s abandoned mine pages point to prevention and treatment, with passive treatment options documented by Pennsylvania’s environmental regulator.

If you assess rare earth sites, see our note on environmental impacts of rare earth separation in Yunnan.

How consultants screen a licence area for environmental risk

This routine gives a desk-based first view before any field work. It does not replace an environmental impact assessment, which a regulator or qualified specialist must carry out.

1. Fix the boundary. Get the licence polygon as a KML, KMZ or GeoJSON file and confirm it against the national cadastre.
2. Build a land-cover baseline. Sentinel-2 imagery has a 10 m pixel and is the base used in the global mining-area map, so a dated baseline of forest, farmland, water and bare ground is cheap to produce.
3. Check protected areas. The World Database on Protected Areas, run by UNEP-WCMC and IUCN, is updated monthly and can be downloaded for an overlap test.
4. Map streams and downstream use. Mark drainage lines, wells, farmland and settlements below the planned pit, waste dump and tailings site.
5. Size the waste. Run the tailings estimator with the plant throughput, grade and recovery from the study.
6. Look beyond the lease. Allow for roads, other infrastructure and worker housing, the pathways the Amazon study names for off-lease clearing.
7. Record and repeat. Save the baseline date and re-check imagery during exploration so changes can be shown.

Farmonaut works from the same kind of satellite data. A licence boundary sent as KML, KMZ or a polygon returns satellite-derived mineral exploration targets in 5 to 20 business days; see our satellite-based mineral detection page. The output is a set of exploration targets, not an environmental or social clearance. To ask for a quote, use the mining query form or contact us.

▶ Explains remote sensing for mining as measuring the ground from a distance, in under three minutes. · 2:01

We cover a connected topic in Mining and Metals Industry Trends: 8 Shifts With Data.

For a closer look at a related question, see our guide: Silver Supply Shortage: Deficit Data and Causes.

Frequently asked questions

What are the main causes of mining?

Demand for metals and minerals is a main driver, with the World Bank expecting graphite, lithium and cobalt output to rise by nearly 500% by 2050 on a below-2°C pathway. Falling ore grades, small-scale gold mining, new infrastructure and licensing that ignores off-lease impacts add to the pressure.

What are the main effects of mining on the environment?

The best-documented effects are forest loss beyond the lease, acid and metal drainage, water use in dry regions, greenhouse gas emissions and mercury releases from small-scale gold mining. Each has a measured example in the sections above.

How much land does mining use?

Maus and others mapped 101,583 km² of mining land use from 2019 imagery. The zone potentially influenced is far larger: 50 million km² if impacts reach 50 km from mine sites (Sonter and others, 2020).

Does mining cause deforestation?

In the Brazilian Amazon it did: mining caused 11,670 km² of forest loss between 2005 and 2015, 9% of the region’s loss. Other regions differ, so check local data before generalising.

What is acid mine drainage?

It is acidic, metal-rich water formed when water reacts with sulfur-bearing rock, producing sulfuric acid that can leach metals. The US EPA lists it as the most prevalent kind of abandoned mine drainage.

How much of global emissions come from mining?

One 2020 estimate puts emissions from primary mineral and metal production at about 10% of global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions in 2018. It includes processing, so it is wider than mine sites.

Which mining activity releases the most mercury?

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining, at 37.7% of human-caused mercury emissions according to the 2018 UNEP assessment as reported by the US EPA.

What are tailings?

Tailings are the ground-up waste left after the valuable mineral is removed, stored in dams or stacked dry. The Global Tailings Portal lists more than 1,800 dams, and the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management sets 77 requirements for operators.

Can recycling replace new mining?

Not on its own. The World Bank found that even a 100% rise in copper and aluminium recycling rates would not meet the demand of clean-energy technologies.

Can satellites help assess the impacts of a mining project?

They can supply a dated land-cover baseline, show change over time and test overlap with mapped protected areas. The global mining-area dataset was itself drawn by hand on 2019 Sentinel-2 imagery. They do not replace field surveys or a formal environmental assessment.