…A boom in mining and mineral industries has polluted the grasslands, marginalized herders and pushed them from their homes…[P]rotests over land rights and mining projects reached a climax this past weekend as police crushed a three-week-long demonstration against toxic waste from a chemical refinery…One protester reportedly died, and 100 were injured. The government announced Monday that it would close the refinery, but tensions…are rising…

In…2011, a Han Chinese coal-truck driver killed a Mongol herder who was protesting mining, sparking days of protests. The government responded by cutting off the Internet and temporarily imposing martial law, but it also promised an overhaul of the coal industry, stricter environmental protection and hundreds of millions of dollars of new spending to promote Mongol culture. But…the fundamental causes of discontent have not disappeared…

A study by a team of Chinese academics published last year titled “The false promises of coal exploitation” found that the mining industry had not raised herders’ incomes and that damage to the fragile grassland environment from mining activities had “increased the risks that herdsman will have to endure in the future.”

…Mining also has sucked up vast quantities of water, depleting underground reserves and causing hundreds of lakes to shrink or disappear, said Fang Jingyun, also a Peking University professor…A government document obtained by Ceng Jing Cao Yuan, a local advocacy group, showed that more than 12,000 sheep died and 23,000 fell sick in seven villages and two farms near the factory between 2008 and 2009, with the probable cause being high levels of fluoride in their bones and in the grasslands...China Power Investment Corp., which owns the smelter, did not respond to a faxed list of questions…