During recent decades, attention and concern has been focused increasingly on the environmental impacts of human activities, especially industrial activities such as mining. The public perception of the mining industry has been tainted by a legacy of envi- ronmental damage from past practices combined with a number of highly publicized failures of metal min- ing tailings dams. As the scale of operations and the area disturbed by the mining industry continue to grow, so too has the public's concern over the indus- try's capacity to manage and mitigate environmental impacts. In response, most governments have imposed stricter legislative and regulatory require- ments on the mining industry in order to protect the ecosystem, to maintain.
