Opportunity
out of
Extreme
Jingyuan Hu The Reflections for the Fields of Exploration - Limits of Exploration
MOUNTAINS TREES STREAMS SOIL ANIMALS HUMAN
We are relying on mining since we cannot live without minerals, which merges into every detail in our life. However, minerals are a part of the nature, when the extraction started, the destruction and pollution happens at the same time. Those mined land has been used to the extreme, neither anything above, nor underneath. We are more and more concerning about the nature since we have realised that we depend on the big environment as well, we started thinking how we can
rescue the exhausted landscape and how to balance the demand. It seems that before we come up with good and mature solution for the energy and mineral solution, we have to reply on the traditional ones for a certain period in the future. When talking about mining, many people may think that mines
• Wieliczka, Poland From a underground salt mine to multiuse spaces • Aosta, Italy From a copper mine to the storage for Fontina cheese • Zollverein XII, Essen, Germany F From a coal mine to center of the creative economy • Dalhalla, Sweden From a limestone quarry to a open-air opera house
• Estadio, Portugal From a granite quarry to a football stadium • Gotland, Sweden From a limestone quarry to a motor racing track • Sudbury, Canada From a nickel mine to a green habitat • Collier, Appalachia, USA From a coal mine to a green habitat • Haller Park, Kenya From a limestone mine to national park • Florestar, Brazil From a limestone mine to a green habitat • Kinta Valley, Malaysia From a Lead mine to a recreational place • Cricova, Moldova From a limestone mine to a wine cellar
are somewhere far away from their life, however, it is far from the reality. Mine has brought advantages and disadvantages to us at the same time. When some are enjoying their new mobile phones, some are suffering from the poor living condition and acid water and so on. Even for one that lives in the city, he/she might be impact by a mine from the far suburb because of the acid mine drainage. We are thankful for mining, nevertheless, we are dealing with the side-effect all the time. Actually, most of the impact happens after the closure of the mine. When a mine has been closed down, things left there will then make the impact. Acid rocks are exposed to the air, underground water comes up since the pumpers are moved away, then the area become worse and trees cannot grow here, so on and so forth. Different mines have different condition according to the kind of the mine, the environment of the area, the scale of the mine, the method used for extraction, and the environmental control and so on. There are many factors that influence the impact after closure, however, lots of them can be controlled or fixed both during mining and after mining. Taking a look all around the world, there are many good examples for post-mining landscape, reclamation and even attempts for restoration. Underground mines can be transformed to storage, wine cellars, chapel, museum, and so on; open pit mines can be transformed to open-air opera house, racing track, football stadium, parks, an so on. Though within an kind of extreme situation, there are still opportunities for us to find. From the examples, we can also see that for some of the mine, it is much easier to recover and reuse, for some, especially those without good plan and environment
control, it is extremely hard. Before reuse the land, it takes years or decades to reclaim the site and lots of people, money, and effort will be needed for that. So when we come back to Norway, we can take some experience from those examples for the mining industry, which is now trying to step on the stage. First of all, from the big picture, mines are located all over the world and the the business with the minerals is huge. However, when it comes to Norway, it is not that outstanding anymore, though mining has been in this country for centuries, the industry and economy is now leading by newly found oil. Norway is country stretches from north to south with a very long and beautiful coastal line, which brought the huge potential for travelling and fishing industry. Many people were surprised when being told that Norway allows mining waste deposit in the sea. If we take a look at the gross domestic product in Norway, we will see how small the mining industry is for this country. It is a bit strange and hard to understand why Norway is willing to sacrifice the sea for mining. Though the consequence of the sea deposit is unknown, though there are life coming up after a certain period of dumping, many would ask that if it is worth trying so. Secondly, For the mining industry in Norway, it is better to have more strict regulations and better and complete plan for the post-mining period. As we can see that because of lacking regulations, many closed mines in Norway generated bad impacts on this land, for instance, Bidjovaggi. Even if the mine is going to reopen, it is still a mystery that who will clean site up. There
Gross Domestic Product in Norway, valued by basic prices (million kronor) mining and quarrying
mining and quarrying Norway is one of the richest countries in the world and mainly relies on its oil and gas industry, which makes almost 19% of it domestic products’ value while mining and quarrying makes only about 0.2%.
postal and courier activities postal and courier activities water supply, sewerage, waste water supply, sewerage, waste agriculture and forestry agriculture and forestry fishing and aquaculture
fishing and aquaculture
transport via pipelines transport via pipelines accommodation and food service activities accommodation and food service activities ocean transport ocean transport arts, entertainment and other service activities arts, entertainment and other service activities electricity, gas and steam electricity, gas and steam real estate activities real estate activities administrative and support service activities administrative and support service activities other transport activities other transport activities information and communication information and communication professional, scientific and technical activities professional, scientific and technical activities dwelling services dwelling services financial and insurance activities financial and insurance activities education education public administration and defense public administration and defense construction construction wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles manufacturing manufacturing health and social work health and social work oil and gas extraction including serveices
oil and gas extraction including serveices
are also many examples of negotiation between the community and the mining company, how they make the balance and prepare for the post-mining period with the effort from both sides. Money is far from enough, even if the company and the government are willing to give out the money, there need to be intelligent people and volunteers who are able to deal with the problem and willing to come to this place especially the Hight North. The community should negotiate with the company and the local people to figure out whether it is good or not to open or reopen the mine here, if it is, how can all of us take action from the start to eliminate the side-effect to the lowest, and what can be done as preparation for the post-mining period. Nevertheless, the whole process should be involved in professional individual or groups for good suggestions and right direction. Then, if the mine can gradually close down and the government will pay attention and help to reclaim and restore the land and sea, it will be a big step. Norway can say that they are willing to share the minerals in the future with much better technology, which may have much less side-effect for the environment, other than saying that they like to make contributions to the market now. This is an ideal situation that with little possibility so we have to face that the mining industry will continue or even thrive in the future in this nature dominated country. Thus, the government should give more attention on this industry, since it is uncertain, without much good plan and may have undesired consequence in the future. We can see
that in the future, many mines will stop according to the low production or price as happened before, the government and community should start now to see what should be done to make the environment better. As they are testing the sea deposit, they can as well test other positive technology, for instance, mining and green inhabitant growing at the same time, and so. Other than wait for the life to come, we should start to make the possibility from the start. It will reduce the complexity and the load of work much less in the end and even make the mining more profitable. Last, thinking about the mine after closure. When looking at the good examples all over the world, the successful post-mining landscape project all are different, in other words, all with certain characteristics according to the place. Then we should ask that what the characteristics of northern Norway is. The freezing temperature, the rural area, the ice? It seems that all of the characters are negative and push the extreme further on. However, the these can be positive and opportunities as well. It is always true that things have two sides. There are two exam-
ples that tell the opportunities. One is the newly built data centre, which is located in the tunnel near to the fjord. It is a low cost methodology with good access to the chilled water. The cool water from the fjord is optimal for use in data cooling system. Another example is the Global Seed Vault, which is also newly built on the island of Svalbard. The north Svalbard is an ideal place due to its lack of tectonic activity and permafrost, which will aid preservation. As we can see, the north is an ideal place for sever farm, an ideal place to preserve things, and there must be more opportunities. Furthermore, it is possible to connect them with mining. The seeds are formerly stored in the tunnel of a coal mine in Svalbard. If the tunnel of the coal mine was designed for storing and preserving things at the very beginning, there is no need to build a seed vault again. If the underground mines are partly designed for the server farms at first, the government and the mining company can spare the cost, and after closure, community or the state can sell the site technological use, not only the place, the whole north will change to a better and greener high-tech region.
If mining has to be there, we should make it much more worthy to be there, trying to find and create value at the beginning, not rescue at the in the very last minute. For Norway, mining is now at a new start point, it is very important for the country to plan and make full preparation right now. references Post-Mining Landscape-- conference documentation published by Jovis Verlag GmbH www.wikipedia.com Allen Berger, Reclaiming the American West published by Princeton Architectural Press http://www.soulfood.no/ www.ssb.no
http://www.wikipedia.com