The nuts and bolts of acid mine drainage.
Mining
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Five Western waterways worse than the orange Animas
Colorado’s Animas River has gotten the most attention — but it’s hardly alone.
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Animas dispatch: Hundreds celebrate the river’s reopening
Durango may be moving on, but wider fears about the toxic spill still reverberate.
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Animas River spill: only the latest in 150 years of pollution
Mapping the other threats to the Animas and San Juan Rivers.
Posted inAugust 17, 2015: Little Big Bird
The Latest: San Carlos Apache lobbies to protect lands threatened by copper mining
Resolution Copper company engineered a land swap with the feds, but locals oppose it.
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Nevada’s gold mining industry is hanging on — for now
Gold producers in Elko see job growth, despite an international price drop.
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Dispatch from White Hope Mine dispute in Montana
The constitutionalist group Oath Keepers is defending a mine that the Forest Service says is out of compliance.
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When our river turned orange
Nine things you need to know about the Animas River mine waste spill.
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Idaho mining dispute raises questions about the future of wilderness
A grandfathered mining claim has opened the doors to development.
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Rare-earth mining in the West: an interview with the reporter
Listen to KDNK Radio speak with Tim Heffernan about the big bust.
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Old mines still plague Montana’s Clark Fork
Why one of the nation’s largest Superfund river sites can’t address pollution from abandoned mines.
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The U.S.’s only rare-earth mine files for bankruptcy
How plain old economics could end Molycorp’s Mountain Pass Mine in the Mojave Desert.
Posted inJune 22, 2015: Dust to Dust
Why rare-earth mining in the West is a bust
Forget the hype. In the global rush for energy-critical elements, our region can’t compete.
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Sightseeing at an open pit mine in Arizona copper country
The mines are still in business, yet towns that once flourished are now mostly gone.
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Oath Keepers show up for a public lands dispute in Oregon
Plus a Cliven Bundy supporter is charged and BLM emails about the Nevada standoff were released.
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Idaho’s Panther Creek comes back from the dead
Two decades after restoration began, life returns to a stream sterilized by mining.
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Forest Service sticks up for coal mining on roadless lands
The agency will calculate climate impacts of mine expansions in western Colorado.
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Canada’s mining boom spills into U.S. waters
How do you protect a river that begins in another country?
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How Native Americans have shaped the year’s biggest environmental debates
And how lawmakers can improve their record next year.
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Mining proposal threatens Arizona town’s water supply
Report outlines risks that mine will deplete aquifer and contaminate groundwater.