ENV100Y5 Final: Env exam review term 2

• School: UTM
• Department: Environment
• Course: ENV100Y5
• Professor: Barbara Murch

Document Summary

Africa is a nation rich of natural resources including copper, cobalt, gold, diamonds, uranium and timber. Thus the miners ended up with little and the soldiers and rebels enriched in the profits of selling it to traders who would sell it overseas to processing companies. These companies refine and sell the tantalum powder to manufacturers, which sell it to companies such as nokia and. Soon the tantalum demand decreased, putting people out of business. Scientists are trying to solve both issues by using bacteria. A mine in montana was shut down, and years later the crater filled with groundwater which was mixed with the sulfide from the freshly exposed rocks and oxygen, creating acid runoff containing low ph sulphuric acid. Metals started to leach into the rocks creating sulphates, which killed all life in the water at its high concentrations. Scientists discovered microbes living in these hostile conditions which were never there before.