introductionwhere are we now

Western Australia (WA) has the highest number of people employed in the mining industry within Australia with 56,000 people employed. WA has been enjoying a mining boom since 2006, however, the boom is slowing down with the construction phase out of the way and the maintenance phase under way with jobs becoming harder and harder to sustain and even harder to get a job and as such the mining boom has calmed down and unemployment rate has increased by 1.2%(see appendix I) where weve been thenDuring the mid-eighties mining was in decline from its already shaky business due to lack of resources, however, during the beginning of the 21st century the mining industry began to increase drastically (see appendixes I) due to investments and increasing commodities. The mining industry had not been this busy since the gold rush of 1800 and because of this it was extremely easy to procure a job. This event was controversial because some believed that we were living in a false economy forcing the country to go into recession when the boom finished, however, the boom has had some major effects on the local wildlife and environment.

natural Environment effects of the mining industry on the landscapeMining has a significant impact on the natural environment in many ways for example the gold rush in Victoria resulted in mass deforestation and pollution. These are the two main environmental issues when it comes to the mining industry: deforestation and pollution, as well as social impacts. When a mine is built usually massive amounts of forest is cut down forcing other animals to flee and decreasing air quality, increasing erosion and temperature change for example the Flimston open cut gold mine was once a lush green environment and is now a barren desert (see appendix III) there was a large amount of wildlife living in Flimston, however, when gold was discovered in the caves below they cut down the entire forest and dug a hole 3.5 kilometers long, 1.5 kilometers wide and 570 meters deep. At these dimensions, it is large enough to be seen from space. This gargantuan pit is the largest open cut mine in the world and because of this there was a large amount of deforestation and pollution because of the constant machines working day and night to keep the mines functional which also produces a large amount of CO2 gas into the atmosphere, unfortunately this is normality with most mines. There are policies in place from the Environmental Protection Act 1986 and the Conservation and Land Management Act 1984. Which places restrictions on how much land they can cut down and where they can interfere with the land because of acts such as the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972.social impactsMining has had many impacts on social services infastruture and the population displacement a prime example of this is the mining town of kalgoorie which in 1893 was founded by a team of prospecters speccifically for the sole puropse of gold mining there is now a population of over 31,000 people now living in kalgoolie, this provides lots of money for social services such as electrical and gas companies kalgoorie is also a hotspot for FIFO. FIFO (fly in fly out) is a system in which you spend an allocated time onsite doing things such as mining catering counstruction ect. and you spend an allocated time at home, like many thing FIFO has good things and bad things. a good thing is that you dont have to spend all year at the mining site. one of the main drawbacks of FIFO is that it puts a tremendous strain on relationships spending extended periods of time away from one another is one reason another reason is that when on sit e everything is done for them while at home they have to do everythings themselves this is a challange to overcome every time they come home from extended periods of work this can lead to an unsteady relationship or divorce . another way that mining affects social and infrastrutureial aspects of western australia as well as enviromental is immigration. immagration is directly affected by the mining industry. immgrints from overseas move to western australia looking for jobs in the mining industry as such the demand for house rise giving real esate agents something to do bu that aslo menas more housing plots which means deforestaion it also causes a wider cultural backround

THE FUTURE when the mining boom has finished but mining is still a steady commodity expected to hold strong for another twenty years according to leading statistions as well as if you look at appendices V VI and VII you will se that the commodities are holding stable( see apendice V VI VII) other believe that the australian government may already start to look for another commodity this could be things like software exports car exports ect. howevr most believe that we are safe however if this is true then australia will then have to go into rescceion for an amount of time and as such unempolyment rate will rise.what can we doi have come up with a series of simple solution to the mining boom great enviromental destruction. to start with deforestaion. to minimise the amount of trees being cut down you place the entire mining site on an elevated platform much like those on the oil rig in the ocean but on land this method will directly cut down the amount of deforestaion by a signifigant amount. anotherthing that should happen is that the government should even though the mining idustry is stable it should still find another commodity as a so called "backup plan"

apenndixes Appendix I

The super pit before and after appendix III

appendix IV