Environmental Problems Related to Diamond Mining in Permafrost Areas

摘要

Placer diamond mining in the Anabar area involves various operations that cause long — term (nearly a quarter of a century) environmental impacts. The long history of mining activities, the technology used to mine the placers, as well as the poor assimilative capacity of the natural systems can result in serious environmental impacts in the area. The primary geochemical processes in the diamond— bearing area are affected by the occurrence of permafrost and relict ice, the lengthy duration of ice cover in water bodies, and the widespread development of cryogenic processes. This promotes physical migration of contaminants, cryogenic metamorphization of waters, and long — term accumulation of organic contaminants in low — temperature, reduction and sedimentation barriers. In this paper, some environmental and geochemical effects of diamond mining in the Arctic area are discussed.