Elements

Friday 31 August 2012

Environmental impact

When bauxite is extracted from the earth, the strip-mining process usually involves habitat destruction, soil erosion and loss of biodiversity. These effects can be plausibly short  term, and followed by regrowth, severe or permanent.Some of the countries with the most bauxite are also those countries with the greatest biodiversity in tropical forests. The caustic red sludge and toxic mine tailings that remain are commonly deposited into excavated mine pits where they ultimately seep into aquifers, thereby polluting the water. The entire process of extracting aluminium from bauxite is incredibly energy intensive, requiring large amounts of electricity, water and resources to produce.



Bauxite waste- red mud




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