Even from great height you can see that something is amiss. The blue-green mining effluent here comes from local copper and nickel mining industries, and leaves a dead, bare spot that one can reflect on from orbit.
The company operating here has been repeatedly cited for violating environmental regulations. The tailings pool itself is an acidic mix of nickel, nickel arsenide, copper, chromium, zinc, lead, aluminum, phosphorous, iron, and who knows what else. Dumped into the ground. Notice the lack of land-based vegetation in the area? According to one resident, the township had to dump lime on the soil — with helicopters — in order to get trees to grow there.
The toxic chemicals involved in the refining of nickel cause deadly cancer in people. It’s also incredibly dangerous work. Although this site is in Canada, the mining industry in the United States is the most perilous industry one can toil in. More dangerous than fishing. More dangerous than building skyscrapers.
But Inco, the owners of the vast Sudbury complex shown here, have at least one hundred reasons to celebrate. Plus, the world continues to need nickel, for a gazillion different uses, I’m positive. But one wonders if there might be a way to extract the metal that doesn’t turn the region into a wasteland and poison all the residents.
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