This 200 year old act is unchanged ever since it was made. It allows people to buy rights to one acre of land for $5, and mine it for metals like copper, silver, and gold. There are no royalties or charges for environmental destruction and it's been that way since the gold rush.

The mining process involves Mountain top removal, which is a method of mining. This process destroys many ecosystems and causes a decrease in biodiversity. Biodiversity is the range of different species in an ecosystem, and is essential to avoid extinction. Other than that, there is a lot of soil erosion in this process which ends up in topsoil depletion. Topsoil contains all the things a plant needs for growth, and it takes thousands of years to form again. Once the metal is mined, there is cyanide used for the separation of the metal from the rock. The cyanide then, leaches or runs down into the river or groundwater, which pollutes the water and causes potential health risks for all living things (shown in the picture above).

I am hoping that with charges for environmental damage and increasing the price of land, it will remind companies that they are responsible for the damage they cause.

I will work with my community and possibly senators to make a change. I need your support and help for this. 

I will also be updating with more information as I make progress.

________________________________________________________

image url: https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/all-glitters-acid-mine-drainage-toxic-legacy-gold-mining-south-africa