Underground mining has been a staple of gold, silver, and coal mining that has seen lots of development since the 1870’s that have made mining cheaper and safer. The largest reason that mining changed was that the companies who invested in these mines needed to know what their mine was worth, so geologist and other scholars were brought in to analyze the ground. Most of this innovation was cost saving related as it is easier to have a productive mine if there aren’t cave-ins because you invest the money to have geologists map out the entirety of their mine. Though these are relatively dramatic changes in the early period of mining they largely increased the profitably of underground mining by increasing the amount of ore that could be removed and by decreasing the amount of money wasted on inefficient practices.
Mining is an imperative industry that supplies large quantities of minerals and metals to thousands of products and industries that it is a staple of the modern world. This reason is exactly why humanity as a whole need to establish safer mining practices and consideration of the environment. The easiest way to minimize the effects of zombie mining effects is by purposefully choosing mining practices that minimize the number of toxic chemicals used in mining. This isn’t the greatest thing possible, but it reduces chemicals to only the toxic materials produced by removing metals from the earth. However, I will say that it isn’t likely that the mining will ever be completely safe for the environment at least in my life as being safe isn’t economically as profitable, and second because the government needs to hold industry accountable and that isn’t effective. The best way to improve mining side effects is by being responsible as an industry and as a government, this isn’t a problem with one answer.