Coming from a town that does underground, hard rock mining in western Canada, I would agree with this idea generally speaking, with an add-on, though: While the

Coming from a town that does underground, hard rock mining in western Canada, I would agree with this idea generally speaking, with an add-on, though: While the act of extraction is relatively benign, the act of processing and refining for use is anything but benign. Technology has changed but the town and surrounding area bear many, many, many visible (and in some cases, permanent) scars of the processing methods.