An accident at a mine in the South African town of Jagersfontein has released a large amount of potentially toxic waste, known as tailings, into the surrounding area. (Photo by NASA/Landsat/Lauren Dauphin)
This disturbing satellite image shows a golden river of potentially hazardous waste winding through the countryside after a deadly incident at a diamond mine in South Africa.
On September 11, 2022, a dam at a diamond mine in Jagersfontein suddenly collapsed, releasing a flood of mining waste known as tailings that flooded the outskirts of the town and the surrounding area, according to NASA's Earth Observatory.
The disaster killed at least three people and injured about 40 others, Bloomberg reported at the time. The flooding also destroyed dozens of homes, damaged cell towers, blocked roads, temporarily contaminated drinking water and swept away hundreds of sheep, according to Reuters.
The image shows a section of the dam's southern wall that has collapsed. From there, waste flowed down the hillside in a huge wave 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) wide, which eventually funneled into the adjacent Wolvas Dam before spilling into the nearby Processpruit River.
Another aerial photograph of the scene (see below) helps to assess the scale of the torrent of water that escaped.
Before and after photographs highlight the true extent of the bright pollution.
In total, the dried tailings covered about 10 square miles (26 square kilometers) of farmland. Parts of Processpruit also appeared to have widened, indicating that a stream of mining waste may have eroded the river banks, according to Earth Observatory.
It is unclear whether any tailings remain in the area, but experts initially predicted that the dried waste would quickly disperse and either be blown away by the wind or washed away by rain.
Toxic gold
According to Earthworks, a US-based non-profit that supports communities affected by mining and fossil fuel extraction, tailings are a murky mixture of dust, rock, water and other byproducts left behind after resource extraction.
Excess sludge often contains trace amounts of metals such as copper, mercury, cadmium and zinc, as well as other compounds including petroleum, sulfuric acid and cyanide, according to Earthworks. This mixture looks like gold when viewed from above, but also makes it
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