Volume 10 : February 2010 All mining is destructive, especially placer gold mining with large bucket-line gold dredges. Best Available Techniques (BAT) is to rehabilitate the dredging site quickly, by smoothing the landforms, spreading topsoil, planting and after-care. This 'best practice' is challenged by research proving benign neglect can lead to a better long-term environment in terms of landscape diversity and wildlife gain. Bucket-line gold dredging in Alaska, California, Montana, Mongolia, Siberia, Russian Far East, China and Australia show abandonment as derelict land eventually produces strong gains in biodiversity, creating new habitats that display a higher degree of naturalness than possible by orthodox 'best practice'. | |
Robin Grayson and Chimed-Erdene Baatar | |
| Wetlands destroyed by bucket-line gold dredges in China... |
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| Forests and Wetlands CREATED by large gold dredges in Russia... |  |
Volume 10 : October 2010 | |
| China and Mongolia revealed in Google Earth as never before! Kmz files of topics from gold mines to the Great Wall of China, from coal mines to cold war bunkers, lost cities to soda lakes. Chose from 80 different kmz files or download the set, all FREE-OF-CHARGE. Begun with funding from the Netherlands-Mongolia Environmental Trust Fund (NEMO), the files are essential tools for understanding the environment and geography of this vast region. | |
| Robin Grayson and Chimed-Erdene Baatar Remote Sensing of Environment and Infrastructure of China and Mongolia. World Placer Journal 2010, volume 10, SUPPLEMENT #1 | |
Volume 10 : November 2010 | |
| NEWS - The novel potential of Ice Shields in tackling Climate Change is highlighted by a set of ground-breaking papers by a group of researchers in Mongolia. For the first time the role of Ice Shields is revealed in addressing Climate Change mitigation, adaptation and buffering. The researchers claim that Ice Shields can halt or even reverse Permafrost Loss so preventing greenhouse gas emissions and protecting the Taiga Forests. Evidence is presented that Ice Shields are give reliable water supplies in spring to millions of rural people and their livestock, particularly in the vast arid regions of China, Mongolia and Siberia - even in the Gobi Desert itself. | |
| Ice Shields and Climate Change. World Placer Journal 2010, volume 10, SUPPLEMENT #2 | |
