Impact Of Sand Mining In South East Queensland Sand Islands

Research essay
Impact of sand mining in South East Queensland sand islands

Introduction:
The coasts of Queensland contain a considerable amount of mineral that were gradually deposited by the ocean, forming beaches and sand dunes. Sand mining has constituted an important activity in the state of Queensland to extract heavy minerals rutile, ilmenite and zircon3, which are used in the industry. Some large islands consist in mass of sand anchored by rocky headlands3; two of them were notably exploited for sand mining: Fraser Island, which is now protected, and Stradbroke Island, where sand mining is planned to stop in 2019 (the island is achieving a transition to a more sustainable economy.)
The questions raised in this essay are how sand mining impacts on the environment and the ecosystem, and if the benefits of sand mining prevails over the costs.

I) Mining impact on water resources:
The water resources existing in Fraser Island and Stradbroke Island consist of freshwater sources, such as lakes, springs and groundwater. Sand mining activity involves digging in the soil and is likely to impact the water sources existing inside the islands.
Fraser Island possesses hundreds of unique freshwater lakes that are constituted of exceptionally clean water. It has been noticed that sand mining in the island could lead to irrevocable degradation of these lakes: indeed, the, and an excessive input of nutrients in the water would be devastating for this ecosystem.1
Secondly, a type of mining called “wet mining” uses water to extract the sand and separate the mineral from the