Timothy J. LeCain has three technological fixes. The “technological, relocation, and delaying techno-fix” transforming takes the most time but is the best. The other ones just delay or put the problem elsewhere. One of the earliest tech fixes happened in the southern Smoky Mountains near the junction of Tennessee. Copper companies would burn the copper by a technique called “heap roast”. This would destroy the vegetation and in one witness report they said that “… within a radius of several miles from the Ducktown Smelters scarcely a single blade of grass grew…” Another problem with copper mining occurred in Deer Lodge. The arsenic air pollution grew out of control and ended up killing hundreds of animals and poisoning those it didn’t kill. Anaconda also had a tech fix with its pressure treated mine timbers with an arsenical solution to help preserve them in hot and humid underground mines.
Even with the vast amount of waste that mines produce, I think it’s still imperative that we continue mining. As technologically fixes show, it can be done correctly and still help produce the energy and steels that these metals did in the early 1900’s. I agree that we should approach it with caution, but I think it’s a necessity to have these metals to remain a top contender in the world’s economy. LeCain asked a question, what if there’s no tech fix? I say we will always come up with a fix to something that we need as a country for the simple fact that there’s money behind that fix.