Mining has always been hazardous, both in terms of the materials themselves and the industrial processes involved. Likewise, most resource extraction creates s

Mining has always been hazardous, both in terms of the materials themselves and the industrial processes involved. Likewise, most resource extraction creates significant waste problems, whether that is just mountains of tailings or giant pools of arsenic or whatever. I don't really see any difference (modulo surprising technology of the future). For purposes of discussion, imagine that the waste processing plant is out in the desert, and the waste is run through multiple extraction passes, where it might get dug up and put back in the ground again several times. Of course, a lot of ore just gets shipped offshore to where processing is cheaper so that could be an option too.