1B-+Mining

Mining Marina de Souza, Ryan Desocio, Gina Sweeney, Nick Raines, Linas Pagano

What is Mining?: * Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth. *





MMC Norilsk Nickel is the world's largest producer of nickel and palladium and one of the leading producers of platinum and copper. It also produces various by-products, such as cobalt, chromium, rhodium, silver, gold, iridium, ruthenium, selenium, tellurium and sulfur. The key production units of the Norilsk Nickel group in Russia are the Polar Division and Kola MMC. MMC Norilsk Nickel international assets include operations in Finland, Australia, Botswana and South Africa.

Future Plans : Norilsk plans to further mining in the future and expand their business further harming the environment. The Moscow News Times says:

"Norilsk Nickel plans to increase nickel-concentrate output in South Africa and Australia to curb dependence on Russian mines. Norilsk intends to raise production at its South African project by 58 percent this year from 5,815 tons last year, while output at Australia's Lake Johnston mine may jump fivefold to 8,400 tons, Roman Panov, head of Norilsk's overseas operations, said Tuesday in a statement.The Moscow-based company, with 80 percent of its nickel production north of the Arctic Circle, is seeking to expand outside Russia as ore grades decline at its main site. Most of the metals concentrate it mines in Africa and Australia is processed at its plant in Finland.  The company is preparing to start its Honeymoon Well project in Australia, with a designed capacity of 40,000 tons of nickel a year, and is working to expand resources, according to the statement."

Read more: [|http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/norilsk-looks-south-for-more-nickel/452554.html#ixzz1vmzIBBpO] The Moscow Times


 * Mining-**The Congo Basin has some of the world richest mineral deposits. Mining operations are poorly monitored and virtually no consideration is given to short-term health efects -- much less to the environmental impact.
 * International finance-** Foreign markets and investments drive large-scale industrial operations, with huge impacts on the forests and social dynamics in the region. Uncontrolled mining activities are rapidly spreading, and plans to build a large-scale iron mine in Gabon's Belinga hills threaten to disturb a pristine refuge for apes, elephants and other wildlife.

What You Can Do : ====You might ask what can we do to stop Norilsk from destroying our earth's beautiful rainforests? First we can make it a criminal offense to mine in designated protected areas and enforce rigid punishments and fines. We can also educate the public on the growing problem and Norilsk's impact on the environment, so the public can organize petitions, protests, and set up protection for the rapidly disappearing rainforests.====

Letter:

To The Norilsk Nickel Company, We are writing to inform you of the danger that your company is causing to the environment. Your company is responsible for damaging parts of the Southern Rainforests in Africa. Not only is your company damaging the rainforests, but they are adding to the toxins in the air and destroying homes of many animals. Many animals that do not have any other options to live elsewhere. We are aware that your company is planning on expanding the area in which you are working, and we are writing to plead your company to seize these plans. Many animals are dependent on the land that your company is trying to consume and will go extinct and die. Not only do the animals need the rainforest as a habitat, but the leaves and vegetation in the rainforest are essential to medicine today. They provide medicine products to work with to come up with cures that can benefit from the entire earth and the earth's population. As you can see the rainforest houses extremely vital resources that affect the lives of everyone. It would be in your best interest to consider alternate ways that do not cause deforestation of the rainforest. We ask you to reconsider your decision to expand your company and think about our planet.

From: Ryan, Marina, Gina, Linas, and Nick