Assessment of Environmental Health Impact of ores mining project in Nyaruguru District, RWANDA: A perspective for Sustainable Development

In this study aiming at assessing the environmental health impacts of mining projects in Nyaruguru District, the direct observation and interview methods were used. The main ores and minerals under exploitation are Wolfram, Cassiterite, Coltan and Gold. The study revealed that the disruption of the relief, weathering and erosion will be occurred during prospecting stage of the project. Construction of access roads and holes were identified as the main cause of change of geomorphology of the area which tend to affect the environment of various logistical facilities if the site is localized ecologically in a zone appreciable, an archaeological site and a natural habitat of protected species. Among the probable impacts associated to the exploitation of a mine as it is an open pit mining are interruptions and unbalances that are susceptible to not only affect air, water, soil ecosystem, but also the human and sociocultural environment. The Acid Drain Mine (ADM) will change the water quality of the study area. Both groundwater and surface water will be disturbed and therefore the slope will be unstable. The exposure of sterile to wind and rainwater is the main source of air and surface water pollution and this affects notoriously the health of neighbouring population of mining site. The mine water is produced when an aquifer piezometric level is higher than the one of underground works or higher than the bottom of an open pite mine. Once mining operations are completed, the management of these waters often stops and causes hydraulic load layouts in fractures and mining works (galleries, through benches, quarries). These waters are at the origin of the phenomena of oxidation and dissolution of minerals, but they aren especially the vector of contaminants to surface and ground waters. They also cause swelling of certain minerals (clays) and viscosity change which have obviously important consequences on the stability of the land.