Ton by ton, China is buying Australia. One of the world’s most staggeringly huge transfers of natural resources has both enriched and alarmed Australia, prompted a determined response from Washington, and illustrated both China’s savvy and ungainliness as it aggressively expands its influence around the world.

Frankly – and this is one reason we’re posting this – is that we don’t know the environmental impact of this mining technique.

There’s a bit about this online – for example this snippet from Wikipedia:

“Environmental issues can include erosion, formation of sinkholes, loss of biodiversity, and contamination of soil, groundwater and surface water^[1] Besides creating environmental damage, the contamination resulting from leakage of chemicals also affect the health of the local population.^[2] Mining companies in some countries are required to follow environmental and rehabilitation codes, ensuring the area mined is returned to close to its original state. Some mining methods may have significant environmental and public health effects.” by chemicals from mining processes. In some cases, additional forest logging is done in the vicinity of mines to increase the available room for the storage of the created debris and soil.

We did some further research and found the responsible company – BHP Billiton, and their sustainability framework and some data about their overall effect on the environment… you can read their full sustainability framework here, and below we provide a couple of charts that illustrate the huge numbers involved (you would think so, since this involves the demolition of a mountain).