LEGAL, ENGINEERING, ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES

Since mining is a basic and essential industry supplying raw materials for medicines; building materials for homes, schools, hospitals, commerce, roads; fuels for heating and energy; metals for transportation (cars, aircraft and ships), machinery, communications infrastructure and other conveniences, it cannot be done away with as some extremist environmentalists would like. What would modern life be without minerals?Miners are the harvesters of the earth's fruits. To reap those fruits, the earth must be plowed up. After harvesting, the plowed fields can be reclaimed and restored to pristine, natural beauty with only temporary disturbance to the earth.Reclamation of surface mines can profitably utilise the void space for burial of society's solid wastes while restoring the mined land surfaces to their original beauty or utility. Industry and environmentalists should rejoice.