DOI: 10.5061/dryad.j3tx95xmg
title: Water and Planetary Health Analytics (WAPHA) global metal mines database

description: An estimated 23 M people live on floodplains affected by potentially
 dangerous concentrations of toxic waste derived from past and present
 metal mining activity. We analyze the global dimensions of this hazard,
 particularly Pb, Zn, Cu and As, using a geo-referenced global database
 detailing all known metal mining sites, and intact/failed tailings storage
 facilities. We then use process-based and empirically tested modelling, to
 produce a global assessment of metal mining contamination in river
 systems, and the number of human populations, and livestock exposed.
 Worldwide, metal mines impact 479,200 km of river channels and 164,000 km2
 of floodplains. The number of people exposed to contamination sourced from
 long-term discharge of mining waste into rivers is almost fifty times
 greater than the number directly impacted by tailings dam failures.
description: Data
 on active (defined as still in operation in database sources
 published/accessed before August 29<sup>th</sup> 2022) and
 inactive (defined in database sources as closed) metal mines worldwide,
 including their location, mineral commodities, and operational status,
 were compiled into the Water and Planetary Health Analytics (WAPHA) global
 metal mines database using QGIS. Mine information was acquired from the United
 States Geological Survey Mineral Resources Data
 System (73,917 mines
 worldwide), the BritPits database of the British Geological
 Survey (8,459 mines in the
 United Kingdom), the S&P Global Market Intelligence
 database (2,584 mines
 worldwide), and our own compilation of c. 100,000 additional mines from
 academic and gray literature, including regional data published by
 government agencies and industry. We also compiled a georeferenced global
 database of metal mining tailings storage facilities and tailings dam
 failures based on the ICOLD/UNEP 2001 compilation (Bulletin
 121), the World
 Information Service on Energy, the World Mine Tailings Failures and Global
 Tailings Portal databases,
 in conjunction with our own compilation of source literature published by
 government and non-government organizations.Together these spatial data
 represent, to our knowledge, the most comprehensive compilation of metal
 mine locations to date. 
description: Data for (i) active mine sites and (ii) inactive mine sites are
 stored are stored as Excel spreadsheets. NB the number of active/inactive
 mines shown in the spreadsheets is less than that reported in Table S1,
 because proprietary data sources have not been included (i.e. MRDS,
 BRITPITS and S&P). Each spreadsheet lists mine names (column A),
 mine status i.e. active or inactive (column B), the principal commodity
 mined (column C), and lat/long coordinates (columns D &
 E). Data for (iii) TSFs and (iv) TDFs are stored as
 zipped Shapefiles. Data should be uncompressed and then imported into any
 GIS programme that can read Shapefiles. Modelling was implemented procedurally in
 MATLAB v9.9.0 (R2020b) with the open source TopoToolbox MATLAB program for
 the analysis of digital elevation models
 (https://topotoolbox.wordpress.com). Modelling workflow is presented in SI
 Figure S8 with example code available in the WAPHA database (Macklin et al
 code.pdf). Citations to software sources are given in the manuscript and
 SI.
description: # The WAPHA georeferenced global database of mine sites, tailings storage
 facilities and tailings dam failures. *** The WAPHA’s georeferenced global
 database (excluding proprietary datasets) holds data on (i) 21,164 active
 mine sites, (ii) 150,309 inactive mine sites, (iii) 11,587 tailings
 storage facilities (TSFs), and (iv) 257 tailings dam failures (TDFs). ##
 Description of the data and file structure The Water and Planetary Health
 Analytics (WAPHA) global metal mines database is divided into four
 components. Publicly available data on (i) active and (ii) inactive metal
 mines are available from the United States Geological Survey Mineral
 Resources Data System (https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/), BritPits database
 of the British Geological Survey
 (https://www.bgs.ac.uk/datasets/britpits/), and the S&P Global
 Market Intelligence database
 (https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/campaigns/metals-mining).
 In addition, data for c. 100,000 additional active/inactive mines,
 obtained from academic and gray literature, are stored in two Excel
 spreadsheets in the WAPHA database (word\_active\_mines\_17.05.2023
 & word\_inactive\_mines\_17.005.2023). Each spreadsheet lists mine
 names (column A), mine status i.e. active or inactive (column B), the
 principal commodity mined (column C), and lat/long coordinates (columns D
 & E). Publicly available data relating to (iii) tailings storage
 facilities (TSFs), and (iv) tailings dam failures (TDFs), are available
 from: ICOLD/UNEP (https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=8W0hAQAAIAAJ), the
 World Information Service on Energy (https://wise-uranium.org/mdaf.html),
 the World Mine Tailings Failures and Global Tailings Portal databases
 (https://tailing.grida.no/). Additional TSF/TDF data, obtained from
 academic and gray literature, are stored in two compressed ShapeFiles
 (zipfiles) in the WAPHA database (Global\_TSFs.zip & Global
 TDFs.zip). ## Sharing/Access information Data for (i) active mine sites
 and (ii) inactive mine sites are stored are stored as Excel spreadsheets.
 NB the number of active/inactive mines shown in the spreadsheets is less
 than that reported in Table S1, because proprietary data sources have not
 been included (i.e. MRDS, BRITPITS and S&P). Data for (iii) TSFs
 and (iv) TDFs are stored as zipped Shapefiles. Data should be uncompressed
 and then imported into any GIS programme that can read Shapefiles.
 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. ## Code/Software This project
 involved a complex series of analyses using a suite of software tools,
 with many manual operation stages. Modelling was implemented procedurally
 in MATLAB v9.9.0 (R2020b) with the open source TopoToolbox MATLAB program
 for the analysis of digital elevation models
 (https://topotoolbox.wordpress.com). Modelling workflow is presented in SI
 Figure S8 with example code available in the WAPHA database (Macklin et al
 code.pdf). Citations to software sources are given in the manuscript and
 SI.