A Golden Opportunity With Miners

From an environmental standpoint, this is an appalling dynamic. To begin with, the amount of environmental disruption/devastation which results from mining operations rises exponentially with the size of the mine. One large mine (typically) doesn’t produce an equal amount of “pollution” to four mines, ¼ its size; but often two or three times that quantity.
Yet even from the standpoint of corporate efficiency this is clearly an inept if not suicidal strategy. In our world of scarce resources, nowhere is this reality more apparent (and expensive) than with respect to energy. At best (i.e. producing high-grade ore from efficient mines), mining companies represent a highly energy-intensive form of industry.
http://etfdailynews.com/2013/02/28/a-golden-opportunity-with-miners-part-iii-market-vectors-junior-gold-miners-etf-spdr-gold-trust/