much like the gold rush there are some miners with deeper pockets than others and those miners have brought in heavier equipment and are tolling through far more ground than those with limited resources. The problem is, again much like early gold rush, coal mining, etc those big outfits tore through the land and with no regulation they destroyed the land, streams and rivers even to the point of causing deaths such as the Buffalo Creek Flood. You early miners as well as the deep pockets ones are much like these early days of real mining in that you have your massive mining rigs which are unregulated and cause environmental damage with the high energy consumption and heat output.