Adapting to climate risks and extreme weather: guide for mining - minerals industry professionals

AbstractExtreme weather events in Australia over recent years have highlighted the costs for Australian mining and mineral processing operations of being under-prepared for adapting to climate risk. For example, the 2010/2011 Queensland floods closed or restricted production of about forty out of Queensland’s fifty coal mines costing more than $2 billion in lost production.Whilst mining and mineral professionals have experience with risk management and managing workplace health and safety, changes to patterns of extreme weather events and future climate impacts are unpredictable. Responding to these challenges requires planning and preparation for events that many people have never experienced before. With increasing investor and public concern for the impact of such events, this guide is aimed at assisting a wide range of mining and mineral industry professionals to incorporate planning and management of extreme weather events and impacts from climate change into pre-development, development and construction, mining and processing operations and post-mining phases. The guide should be read in conjunction with the research  final report which describes the research process for developing the guide and reflects on challenges and lessons for adaptation research from the project.The Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney (UTS) led the development of the guide with input from the Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation, University of Queensland and a Steering Committee from the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy’s Sustainability Committee and individual AusIMM members, who volunteered their time and experience. As the situation of every mining and mineral production operation is going to be different, this guide has been designed to provide general information about the nature of extreme weather events, and some specific examples of how unexpectedly severe flooding, storm, drought, high temperature and bushfire events have affected mining and mineral processing operations. A number of case studies used throughout the guide also illustrate the ways forward thinking operations have tackled dramatically changing climatic conditions.Each section of the guide outlines a range of direct and indirect impacts from a different type of extreme weather, and provides a starting point for identifying potential risks and adaptation options that can be applied in different situations. The impacts and adaptation sections provide guidance on putting the key steps into practice by detailing specific case examples of leading practice and how a risk management approach can be linked to adaptive planning. More information about specific aspects of extreme weather, planning and preparation for the risks presented by these events, and tools for undertaking climate related adaptation is provided in the ‘Additional Resources’ section

Sustainable seabed mining: guidelines and a new concept for Atlantis II Deep

The feasibility of exploiting seabed resources is subject to the engineering solutions, and economic prospects. Due to rising metal prices, predicted mineral scarcities and unequal allocations of resources in the world, vast research programmes on the exploration and exploitation of seabed minerals are presented in 1970s. Very few studies have been published after the 1980s, when predictions were not fulfilled. The attention grew back in the last decade with marine mineral mining being in research and commercial focus again and the first seabed mining license for massive sulphides being granted in Papua New Guinea’s Exclusive Economic Zone.Research on seabed exploitation and seabed mining is a complex transdisciplinary field that demands for further attention and development. Since the field links engineering, economics, environmental, legal and supply chain research, it demands for research from a systems point of view. This implies the application of a holistic sustainability framework of to analyse the feasibility of engineering systems. The research at hand aims to close this gap by developing such a framework and providing a review of seabed resources. Based on this review it identifies a significant potential for massive sulphides in inactive hydrothermal vents and sediments to solve global resource scarcities. The research aims to provide background on seabed exploitation and to apply a holistic systems engineering approach to develop general guidelines for sustainable seabed mining of polymetallic sulphides and a new concept and solutions for the Atlantis II Deep deposit in the Red Sea.The research methodology will start with acquiring a broader academic and industrial view on sustainable seabed mining through an online survey and expert interviews on seabed mining. In addition, the Nautilus Minerals case is reviewed for lessons learned and identification of challenges. Thereafter, a new concept for Atlantis II Deep is developed that based on a site specific assessment.The research undertaken in this study provides a new perspective regarding sustainable seabed mining. The main contributions of this research are the development of extensive guidelines for key issues in sustainable seabed mining as well as a new concept for seabed mining involving engineering systems, environmental risk mitigation, economic feasibility, logistics and legal aspects

ISER 2012 Working Paper No. 1

Large resource development projects take years to plan. During that planning time, the public frequently debates the potential benefits and risks of a project, but with incomplete information. In these debates, some people might assert that a project would have great benefits, while others might assert that it would certainly harm the environment. At the same time, the developer will be assessing different designs, before finally submitting one to the government permitting agencies for evaluation and public scrutiny. For large mines in Alaska, the government permitting process takes years, and often includes an ecological risk assessment. This assessment is a data-intensive, scientific evaluation of the project’s potential ecological risks, based on the specific details of the project. Recently, some organizations have tried to bring scientific rigor to the pre-design public discussions, especially for mining projects, through a pre-design risk ecological risk assessment. This is a scientific assessment of the environmental risks a project might pose, before the details of project design, risk-prevention, and risk-mitigation measures are known. It is important to know whether pre-design risk assessment is a viable method for drawing conclusions about risks of projects. If valid risk predictions can be made at that stage, then people or governments would not have to wait for either a design or for the detailed evaluation that is done during the permitting process. Such an approach could be used to short cut permitting. It could affect project financing; it could affect the schedule, priority, or even the resources that governments put toward evaluating a project. But perhaps most important: in an age where public perceptions are an important influence on a project’s viability and government permitting decisions, a realistic risk assessment can be used to focus public attention on the facts. But if the methodology is flawed and results in poor quality information and unsupportable conclusions, then a pre-design risk assessment could unjustifiably either inflame or calm the public, depending on what it predicts.Executive Summary / Section 1. Introduction / Section 2. Overview of Ecological Risk / Section 3. Ecological Risk Assessment Methodology / Section 4. Examples of Post-Design Ecological Risk Assessments / Section 5. Pre-Design Ecological Risk Assessment: Risks of Large Scale Mining in the Bristol Bay Watershed / Section 6. Conclusion / Bibliograph

PREGLED ODRŽIVOGA RAZVOJA I ODRŽIVOSTI OKOLIŠA U RUDARSKOJ DJELATNOSTI

A comprehensive systemic approach is needed to make effective decisions for global sustainability. The system’s points of view introduced sustainable development (S.D.) and sustainability in prior years. Sustainable development is expressed as a desire followed by humanity to live in a better condition considering all the limits that nature could have. Social, environmental, and economic responsibilities are the wide-ranging developmental characteristics that form sustainability. In this paper, with the help of search engines like Scopus and Web of Science, several documents related to environmental sustainability in the mining industry were studied. The principal investigated problems were tailings dam failure, forestland use in mining operations, social and environmental issues in crushed stone mining industries, landfill mining challenges, climatic problems, economic problems, and fatalities in artisanal and small-scale mines. Also, a table was designed to categorise these problems and determine the solution and primary goal. This study investigates the severity of mining operation conditions and environmental issues in this industry. The common environmental problems in the mining industry include soil degradation, deforestation, land subsidence, acid mine drainage, waste production, natural landscape destruction, coal production, carbon footprint, dust pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and climatic problems. To have a more sustainable mining industry, all the mining stages, from the exploration to the post-closure stages, must minimise resource and energy consumption and waste products.Za donošenje učinkovitih odluka u sklopu globalne održivosti potreban je sveobuhvatan sustavan pristup, što posebno dolazi do izražaja prethodnih godina. Održivi razvoj izražava se kao želja čovječanstva za životom u boljim uvjetima uzimajući u obzir moguća ograničenja prirode. Društvene, ekološke i ekonomske odgovornosti ubrajaju se među brojne karakteristike razvoja koje čine održivost. U ovome radu, uz pomoć tražilica poput Scopusa i Web of Science, proučavano je nekoliko dokumenata vezanih uz održivost okoliša u rudarskoj industriji. Glavni fokusi studija vezani su uz probleme kao što su klizanje jalovišta, korištenje šumskoga zemljišta u rudarskim radovima, socijalna i ekološka pitanja u eksploataciji i proizvodnji tehničko-građevnoga kamena, izazovi eksploatacije na odlagalištima, klimatski problemi, ekonomski problemi i smrtni slučajevi u privatnim i malim rudnicima. Također, osmišljena je tablica koja kategorizira te probleme i njihova rješenja te primarni cilj. Ova studija istražuje važnost radnih uvjeta u rudarstvu i probleme okoliša u rudarskoj industriji. Uobičajeni ekološki problemi u toj industriji uključuju degradaciju tla, krčenje šuma, slijeganje zemljišta, odvodnju kiselih otpadnih voda iz rudnika, proizvodnju otpada, degradaciju prirodnoga krajolika, proizvodnju ugljena, ugljični otisak, onečišćenje prašinom, emisije stakleničkih plinova i klimatske probleme. Kako bismo imali održiviju rudarsku industriju, sve faze rudarstva, od istraživanja do faza nakon zatvaranja, moraju minimizirati potrošnju resursa i energije te otpadne proizvode

Management of environmental impacts of gold mining in Southern Ghana.

Many environmental and socio-economic problems have been known to be associated with surface gold mining operations in southern Ghana over many years. In this study, these mining impacts are examined using four case study areas and linked to the type and scale of mining operations and the social and physical geography of each region. Information on mining impacts and adverse impact management was obtained from four mining companies, and 800 residents from 16 communities, in the study area using questionnaires, personal interviews and field observations. Additional information was also obtained from relevant government and other institutions. A critical assessment of the current status of the environment and socio-economic situation of, as well as environmental management measures pursued in, the four mining areas reveals that despite a number of prevailing problems, many mining impact mitigation measures are being pursued in the region. These measures are aimed at environmental protection and minimisation of socio-economic impacts of mining. However, common to most of the mines is the use of largely disjointed, and in some cases, ad hoc approaches in the design and implementation of environmental management programmes. A more co-ordinated and cohesive approach to managing mining impacts is required, to ensure environmentally sustainable and socially responsible mining in the region. The use of an Environmental Management System (EMS) is proposed. A community-centred framework based on the geo-environmental characteristics of the study area upon which such a system could be built is presented. This framework could be adopted or adapted for the development of a viable EMS for surface gold mining, which, in turn, would lead to environmentally and socially responsible mining in the study area in particular, and southern Ghana in general

Sustainability analysis of copper extraction and processing using LCA methods

The concept of sustainability on the one hand and the extraction and processing of primary resources on the other, at first glance, appear to be in conflict, since the production processes deplete resources that are strictly considered finite. In addition, these processes inevitably disturb the environment. This is especially true in copper production considering this is a metal with a high global demand, currently mined at increasingly low grades. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an established method to assess the sustainability profile of products, processes and systems that has become important in recent years through the establishment of the ISO 14040 series of standards. Although LCA studies on mining and mineral processing systems, including copper, have been carried out since the mid- to late 1990s; these studies are limited to the ore extraction and mineral processing, not considering waste management, which is absent from all LCA based sustainability assessment of metal production systems reported in literature. In addition the low level of detail used in conventional LCA tools (not accounting for emissions at unit process level) lead to oversimplifications and underestimation of the true impacts. In this PhD research an LCA model has been developed to assess the impacts of copper mining and processing, considering the mine, mineral processing and waste disposal facilities life cycles as part of the copper production. The model is designed at unit process level and integrates the mining (open-pit and underground), mineral processing and waste management processes and accounts for emissions to the different environmental compartments (air, water, soil). The life cycle inventory (LCI) models developed are designed using specific activity data at component unit-process level together with emission factors from literature (US EPA, Australian NPI) and engineering calculations or models. The model developed uses mass balance/equilibrium calculations from intermediate products, resource consumption rates or activity levels to estimate life cycle estimates. The model functionality is illustrated using a true Chilean mine case study which was parameterised using mining, mineral processing and waste disposal facilities information for a baseline year when detailed operational data and key variables were recorded. The different LCA impact indicators estimated are carbon footprint (or global warming potential), water footprint, human toxicity, resource depletion and ecotoxicity (USEtox). Different Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) methods, chosen from the most recent and widely used LCIA methods, are utilised to compare the different methods results. Extensive Sensitivity and Monte Carlo analysis is performed to assess the uncertainty of key parameters. The response of the LCA impact indicator scores to the variation of variables such as the copper ore grade, copper recovery efficiency, average stripping ratio, electricity grid mix, are evaluated and presented.Open Acces

technospheric mining of mine wastes

The concept of mining or extracting valuable metals and minerals from technospheric stocks is referred to as technospheric mining. As potential secondary sources of valuable materials, mining these technospheric stocks can offer solutions to minimise the waste for final disposal and augment metals’ or minerals’ supply, and to abate environmental legacies brought by minerals’ extraction. Indeed, waste streams produced by the mining and mineral processing industry can cause long-term negative environmental legacies if not managed properly. There are thus strong incentives/drivers for the mining industry to recover and repurpose mine and mineral wastes since they contain valuable metals and materials that can generate different applications and new products. In this paper, technospheric mining of mine wastes and its application are reviewed, and the challenges that technospheric mining is facing as a newly suggested concept are presented. Unification of standards and policies on mine wastes and tailings as part of governance, along with the importance of research and development, data management, and effective communication between the industry and academia, are identified as necessary to progress technospheric mining to the next level. This review attempts to link technospheric mining to the promotion of environmental sustainability practices in the mining industry by incorporating green technology, sustainable chemistry, and eco-efficiency. We argue that developing environmentally friendly processes and green technology can ensure positive legacies from the mining industry. By presenting specific examples of the mine wastes, we show how the valuable metals or minerals they contain can be recovered using various metallurgical and mineral processing techniques to close the loop on waste in favour of a circular economy