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https://theconversation.com/to-reach-net-zero-the-world-still-needs-mining-after-26-years-heres-what-ive-learned-about-this-evil-industry-190510>
"On the wooded hill above the Stan Terg lead and zinc mine in Kosovo, there is
an old concrete diving platform looming over what was once an open-air swimming
pool. Before the break-up of Yugoslavia, people who worked at the mine would
bring their families here to swim, sunbathe on the wide terrace with its view
across the valley, and picnic among the trees. Now the pool is slowly
disappearing into the forest, the view obscured by birch saplings.
I am with Peter*, an Albanian mine worker who used to come up here with his
friends before the war began in 1998. Back then, Serbs and Albanians would use
the pool and nearby tennis courts together, but there are no Serb mining
families here now. Two decades on, the ruination in the landscape still seems
unsettling – a reminder for Peter that something valuable has been lost. “I
don’t know what the hell happened here,” he says.
As we walk along a winding path he points to a cluster of blue flowers, little
starbursts of colour nestled in the dead bracken. “That’s a sign there are
metals underneath,” he tells me. They are a quiet reminder of the ore-rich rock
that continues to disrupt life in this uneasy corner of Kosovo.
Mines like Stan Terg seem to lurk in the public imagination as remote places
that are dangerous, dirty, damaging, violent and destructive. They pollute
streams, corrupt politicians, degrade communities and explode indigenous
artefacts.
Or they are places where bad people go – those who exploit and extract at the
expense of others, human and nonhuman, and are not concerned about the cost. We
seem to prefer not to think about them unless we have to.
And yet, we can’t live our modern lives without mining. We may slowly be
turning our backs on fossil fuels, but what about all the other geological
resources with which our lives are entangled? The mined ore in our mobile
phones – those palm-size assemblages of cobalt, lithium, copper, manganese and
tungsten. The lead and zinc in our car batteries, the aluminium in our
bicycles, the steel in our buildings, and the copper in the hidden networks of
cabling that hold our worlds together.
The problem of mining is one for all of us. But what sort of problem is it?"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
