Outback Opal Hunters

Must admit when I've stumbled upon it, it just looks like people raping the land for a quick buck. Not for me.

The only people who really care are the original indigenous peoples, and their opinions count for nothing, as far as the White colonists are concerned. 🤷🏼

The gold hunters have to rehabilitate the land after and there are huge restrictions on what they can and cannot do like only digging a % of the land, not taking down trees etc.  Depends on state to state as well I think

Dunno about the opal hunters as you are right their areas look a huge mess.  I wonder if its anything goes within certain areas

Mrs DB’s dad’s half-brother found one of the biggest opals found in Australia at the time and pretty well lived off the proceeds for the rest of his life. 

We did a big road trip up the west coast and visited quite a few mining areas. It's a huge country full of almost nothing. The mining areas were a tiny fraction, and tbh were some of the most interesting parts. There are some stunning natural areas too but these seemed largely untouched by mining operations.

Alaskan version is worse.

Alaskan gold that is,strip mining but I think they have to make right. Can't in all honesty see how they do that.

Old mining works wreck the land.

Arsenic, lead and mercury is still present in contaminated sand, while crushed rock and gravel has been dumped.

Modern workings are more environmentally controlled with pools of cyanide used in processing gold by leaching. Nice!

Cyanide is getting more common in smaller mines although it's been around for a century

Although having said that, my own stomping ground, the Lake District, bears the same scars. When you're there amongst the grandeur and atmosphere it's easy to forget that mining has shaped much of the landscape. Fortunately the technology involved didn't leave caterpillar tracks everywhere, but like I said, the scars are there.