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Mines/Zambia

Kabwe (Broken Hill) lead mine

Kabwe (Broken Hill) lead mine, Zambia. Closed, mining lead.

Why Kabwe (Broken Hill) lead mine is famous

HRW says the mine and smelter polluted the area from 1904 to 1994 and that mine closed in 1994 with no comprehensive clean-up. A 2018 study reported over 95 percent of children in exposed townships had elevated blood lead. The opening year is the start of the pollution period given by HRW, not a verified mine start.1,2

Story cards

Kabwe (Broken Hill) lead mine today

Where lead is mined todayMining in Zambia

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Mines

An example ofBunker Hill Mine (Coeur d'Alene)Kabwe polluted from 1904 to 1994. Bunker Hill's cleanup area is 21 square miles.1An example ofPicher (Tri-State district)Lead legacies: Kabwe closed in 1994. Picher's district gave 45 per cent of First World War lead.1

Sources

  1. Zambia: tackle lead poisoning at former mine (27 July 2021) Human Rights Watch
  2. Wikidata item Q216902 (Kabwe) Wikidata (CC0)

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Malachite on cobaltocalcite, Musonoi by Ji-Elle, CC BY-SA 3.0; Crushers by photosmith2011, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0. Pictures: NASA's ASTER Shows Brazilian City After Dam Disaster, NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)).