copper

Environmentalists from four East European countries Wednesday urged their governments to ban polluting effluents after a lake containing heavy metal waste spilt over in Romania following flash floods.

"Stop the pollution of our rivers with toxic mining waste," 45 environmental organisations said in a joint letter to the governments of Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and Ukraine.

The letter also underlined the "vulnerability of the mining industry in extreme climate conditions" such as the torrential rains experienced recently in Romania and Ukraine.

Even the bighorn sheep will likely abandon the Silver Bell area once mining eliminates more of their habitat, said Krausman, a former University of Arizona professor. The study is becoming part of the debate today as wildlife officials and mining officials disagree over likely effects of the proposed Rosemont open-pit copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains, southeast of Tucson.

Adon Kalenga works seven days a week collecting minerals from the ground with his bare hands.He is 13 years old and lives in Katanga province in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Sometimes he sleeps in the streets; other nights he spends in an orphanage.