The Canadian Diamonds Challenges - Essay Example

Canada’s diamond industry is managed and run by big mining industries including BHP-Billion, De Beers and Rio Tinto. These three companies work on the three mining sites; BHB-Billiton mining at Ekati, Rio Tinto mining at Diavik mines and De Beers taking on the Victor mines. The revenue brought in by the mines in 2005 was estimated at $251 million (Boutilier & Black 2013).It’s not undeniable that the diamonds provide such a huge amount to money to the government but their effects on the environment overshadow all that hype.

The greed by the companies to getting these precious commodity has led to serious environmental issues. First of all, the mines were constructed on fragile ecosystems and hence endangering the survival of wolverines, ptarmigan and also fish million (Boutilier & Black 2013).Secondly, the cultural and social lives of the areas like Ekati have been disrupted. Lastly, due to inadequate regulatory frameworks in Canada, there is no provision that the long term and environmental effects will be handled but the companies in the long term.

Just to take an example of Victor mines, the environmental pollutions include the fact that 100,000 m3of salty water is pumped into river Attawapiskatmillion (Boutilier & Black 2013). Consequently, this leads to endangered aquatic lives. Another risk is that 1.2 million cubic meter of muskeg will be cleared. In addition to that, the Methyl mercury released by dewatering muskeg is potentially risky to the environment.In a different aspect, an estimate of 2.5 million rocks from the mines are dumped anywhere in the environment each year million (Boutilier & Black 2013).