How has a shortage of census and geological information impeded the regularization of artisanal and small‐scale mining?

There is growing consensus that a combination of laissez‐faire policies, ad hoc regulation and debilitating support services has perpetuated socio‐economic and environmental deterioration in the artisanal and small‐scale mining (ASM) industry. However, a lack of anthropological and geological information on ASM prevents many governments both from improving the policy environment of the industry, and from providing more robust extension services to its operators. This article aims to examine more precisely how a deficiency of baseline census and geological data has inhibited industry formalization and undermined many of the measures implemented to address pressing problems at ASM sites. Specifically, it is argued that insufficient knowledge of artisanal mining populations — including their demographic structure — and of areas suitable for ASM activities affects the ability of a government to regularize, as well as to improve, the organization of this largely informal sector of industry. Case studies of Ghana and Zimbabwe are used to illustrate how the undertaking of low‐budget projects in areas of geological prospecting and population analysis could improve the efficiency of ASM assistance.     

No net loss of what,for whom?: stakeholder perspectives to Biodiversity Offsetting in England

Market-based instruments (MBIs) have emerged as a popular approach to balance development and conservation objectives. However, their ability to accomplish this is often beset by poor implementation in practice. This is testament to a widening gap between the rate of policy development and implementation of MBIs and the maturity of research and evaluation on their design, and impact on affected stakeholders. Within this context, this paper examines multi-stakeholder perspectives to the adoption of Biodiversity Offsetting in England, an instrument designed to enable biodiversity losses in one place to be compensated through conservation improvements elsewhere. Analysis reveals issues associated with social and ecological compensation of biodiversity loss. Findings suggest that there is a need for a broader consideration of issues surrounding distributive justice, access to nature and the status of ownership over sites of common heritage when accounting for biodiversity loss and its compensation. This message is salient to both the study context as well as the burgeoning international practice of Biodiversity Offsetting.     

Assessing depleted uranium (DU) contamination of soil, plants and earthworms at UK weapons testing sites

Depleted uranium (DU) weapons testing programmes have been conducted at two locations within the UK. An investigation was therefore carried out to assess the extent of any environmental contamination arising from these test programmes using both alpha spectrometry and mass spectrometry techniques. Uranium isotopic signatures indicative of DU contamination were observed in soil, plant and earthworm samples collected in the immediate vicinity of test firing points and targets, but contamination was found to be localised to these areas. This paper demonstrates the superiority of the (235)U : (238)U ratio over the (234)U : (238)U ratio for identifying and quantifying DU contamination in environmental samples, and also describes the respective circumstances under which alpha spectrometry or mass spectrometry may be the more appropriate analytical tool.     

Australian junior exploration floats, 2001–06, and their implications for IPOs

An analysis of 179 junior exploration floats, listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) between July 2001 and June 2006, helped to build a basic understanding of the strategy and business structure of these companies. The “typical” junior explorer raised A$4 million at initial public offering (IPO) to finance a 2-year, mainly greenfields exploration program. The capital raised at IPO entitled its investors to approximately half of the company, with the balance in the hands of the promoters, vendors and/or seed capital investors. Of the A$4 million raised at IPO, it intended to spend approximately two-thirds on exploration, while the remainder was absorbed in corporate overheads and the costs of the IPO. Once these were paid, ongoing corporate overheads averaged approximately 28% of its total operational expenditure. However, given an average total annual expenditure of approximately A$2.6 million, most juniors held insufficient capital reserves to meet operational costs beyond a time frame of 2 years. As at October 2006, 9% of the companies were in the process of mine construction, whereas 6% had made it to producer status. The lead time from listing to production ranged from 1.5 to 53 months, giving a median of 28 months.     

A Risk-Based Predictive Tool to Prevent Accidental Introductions of Nonindigenous Marine Species

Preventing the introduction of nonindigenous species (NIS) is the most efficient way to avoid the costs and impacts of biological invasions. The transport of fouling species on ship hulls is an important vector for the introduction of marine NIS. We use quantitative risk screening techniques to develop a predictive tool of the abundance and variety of organisms being transported by ocean-going yachts. We developed and calibrated an ordinal rank scale of the abundance of fouling assemblages on the hulls of international yacht hulls arriving in New Zealand. Fouling ranks were allocated to 783 international yachts that arrived in New Zealand between 2002 and 2004. Classification tree analysis was used to identify relationships between the fouling ranks and predictor variables that described the maintenance and travel history of the yachts. The fouling ranks provided reliable indications of the actual abundance and variety of fouling assemblages on the yachts and identified most (60%) yachts that had fouling on their hulls. However, classification tree models explained comparatively little of the variation in the distribution of fouling ranks (22.1%), had high misclassification rates (∼43%), and low predictive power. In agreement with other studies, the best model selected the age of the toxic antifouling paint on yacht hulls as the principal risk factor for hull fouling. Our study shows that the transport probability of fouling organisms is the result of a complex suite of interacting factors and that large sample sizes will be needed for calibration of robust risk models.     

Verbleib von spurenschadstoffen bei der methylesterherstellung aus altspeisefett im technikumsmaßstab

Aims and Scope

In Germany, 120,000 tons per year of waste edible fats are collected from the catering and the food industry Until recently, these fats have widely been used as a nutritional additive for poultry and other animals fodder. Due to the BSE crisis and some affairs based on dioxins in feeding stuff, waste fats are now barely used as fodder. Currently, these fats substitute fresh vegetable oils in the chemical industry and are used as raw material for the production of biodiesel. Therefore, alternative fields of application are required. In this context, the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU) is sponsoring a joint research project which deals with the production and testing of cooling lubricants based on monoesters made from waste edible fats.

Methods

In a first step, characteristics and quality of wasteedible fats of different origins were chemically analysed and monitored. The investigations covered the following fat specific parameters: total contamination, sulphate ash, water content, peroxide number, iodine value, kinematical viscosity, neutralisation number (free fatty acids) and fatty acid spectra. In the next step, a process development/optimisation was carried out for the production of methylesters based on the raw material waste fat, leading to the construction of a pilot plant. To investigate the fate of trace pollutants during the production process of waste-fat methylester, samples were systematically contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, polychlorinated dibenzofurans and the elements Al, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, P, Pb, Sn, and Zn. These contaminated fat samples were transesterified in laboratory scale. The primary and by-products were analysed subsequently.

Results

Valuable hints on the design of the technical process of fatty adid methylester production based on waste edible fats were gained by regarding the fat specific parameters. For example, filtration and dewatering of the waste fats proved necessary. The saturated fatty acids, most wanted for the production of cooling lubricants due to their high oxidation stability, were present in the range of 11,3% to 31,6%. Due to the low content of free fatty acids, a base catalysed process occurred more suitable for the transesterification of the waste edible fats. Trace analytical investigations concerning inorganic and organic pollutants proved a low basic contamination of the waste edible fats. Experiments with systematic contamination of the fats indicated an accumulation of the heavy metals in the glycerol phase during the transesterification process, whereas the organic pollutants were detected in the methylester fraction by amounts of 80% to 95%.

Outlook

In a next step, the further processing of the methylesters to monoesters with alcohols of the chain length C2 to C8 will be presented. Associated results of chemical-analytical investigations on the process and the application of the cooling lubricants will also be given.     

Chemical contaminants in juvenile gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) from a subsistence harvest in Arctic feeding grounds

Gray whales are coastal migratory baleen whales that are benthic feeders. Most of their feeding takes place in the northern Pacific Ocean with opportunistic feeding taking place during their migrations and residence on the breeding grounds. The concentrations of organochlorines and trace elements were determined in tissues and stomach contents of juvenile gray whales that were taken on their Arctic feeding grounds in the western Bering Sea during a Russian subsistence harvest. These concentrations were compared to previously published data for contaminants in gray whales that stranded along the west coast of the US during their northbound migration. Feeding in coastal waters during their migrations may present a risk of exposure to toxic chemicals in some regions. The mean concentration (standard error of the mean, SEM) of sigmaPCBs [1400 (130) ng/g, lipid weight] in the blubber of juvenile subsistence whales was significantly lower than the mean level [27,000 (11,000) ng/g, lipid weight] reported previously in juvenile gray whales that stranded in waters off the west coast of the US. Aluminum in stomach contents of the subsistence whales was high compared to other marine mammal species, which is consistent with the ingestion of sediment during feeding. Furthermore, the concentrations of potentially toxic chemicals in tissues were relatively low when compared to the concentrations in tissues of other marine mammals feeding at higher trophic levels. These chemical contaminant data for the subsistence gray whales substantially increase the information available for presumably healthy animals.     

Ambient level volatile organic compound (VOC) monitoring using solid adsorbents--recent US EPA studies

Ambient air spiked with 1-10 ppbv concentrations of 41 toxic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) listed in US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Compendium Method TO-14A was monitored using solid sorbents for sample collection and a Varian Saturn 2000 ion trap mass spectrometer for analysis. The adsorbent was a combination of graphitic carbon and a Carboxen-type carbon molecular sieve. The method detection limits (MDLs) for 11 samples were typically 0.5 parts per billion by volume (ppbv) and lower except for bromomethane and chloromethane, both of which exhibited breakthrough. Thirty-day sample storage on the sorbents resulted in less than a 20% change for most compounds, and water management was required for humid samples to avoid major anomalous decreases in response during analyses. The adsorbent-based system, a system using canister-based monitoring, and a semi-continuous automated GC/MS (autoGC) monitoring system with a Tenax GR/Carbotrap B/Carbosieve S-III adsorbent preconcentrator were compared using spiked ozone concentrations as a variable. In this comparison, the target compounds included a number of n-aldehydes as well as those listed in TO-14A. The effects of ozone on the TO-14A compounds were relatively minor with the exception of negative artifacts noted for styrene and 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane. However, a small, systematic decrease in response was evident for a number of aromatic VOCs and 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane when ozone was increased from 50 to 300 ppbv. Method averages for multiple runs under the same conditions were typically within +0.25 ppbv of their mean for most compounds. For n-aldehydes, strong positive artifacts using the autoGC preconcentrator and strong negative artifacts for the canister-based and carbon sorbent approaches caused major disagreement among methods. These artifacts were mostly eliminated by using MnO2 ozone scrubbers, although loss of the n-aldehydes for all methods occurred after a single sample collection of 1 h duration, apparently due to the interaction of the n-aldehydes and products of the O3, MnO2 reaction on the scrubber.