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

Guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures for IDDE and Pollution Prevention/Good Housekeeping

In April 2003, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) issued a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) General Permit for Stormwater Discharges from Small Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4s). A total of 45 New Hampshire communities (six fully regulated and 39 partially regulated) became subject to Stormwater Phase II regulations based on their designation as Urbanized Areas according to the 2000 US Census

Waste Reduction, Construction and Demolition Debris: Guide for Building, Construction and Environmental Professionals, Revised November 2008

This document is intended to lay the foundation for resource reduction strategies in new construction, renovation and demolition. If you have an innovative idea or information that you believe should be included in future updates of this manual please email Shelly Codner at [email protected] or Jan Loyson at [email protected]. Throughout this manual, we use the term “waste reduction” to define waste management initiatives that will result in less waste going to the landfill. In accordance with the waste management hierarchy these practices include reducing (waste prevention), reusing (deconstruction and salvage), recycling and renewing (making old things new again) - in that order. This manual will explain what these practices are and how to incorporate them into your projects

Coal desulfurization by low temperature chlorinolysis, phase 3

Laboratory scale, bench scale batch reactor, and minipilot plant tests were conducted on 22 bituminous, subbituminous, and lignite coals. Chemical pretreatment and post treatment of coals relative to the chlorination were tried as a means of enhancing desulfurization by the chlorinolysis process. Elevated temperature (500-700 C) hydrogen treatment of chlorinolysis-processed coal at atmospheric pressure was found to substantially increase coal desulfurization up to 90 percent. Sulfur forms, proximate and ultimate analyses of the processed coal are included. Minipilot plant operation indicates that the continuous flow reactor provides coal desulfurization results comparable to those obtained in the batch reactor. Seven runs were conducted at coal feed rates of 1.5 to 8.8 kg per hour using water and methylchloroform solvents, gaseous chlorine feed of 3 to 31.4 SCFH at 21 to 70 C, and atmospheric pressure for retention times of 20 to 120 minutes

Assessment and Characterization of Airborne Dust in Coal Surface Mine

Now a day’s dust pollution is the major environmental issue inside an opencast mine, which has various effects on human life. There are a number of fugitive sources, and activities which cause dust pollution inside an opencast mine eg. Drilling, transportation, blasting, crushing, conveying, overburden face, haul road etc. Among these dust, there are some toxic and carcinogenic dust which are when exposed to the workers that lead to different serious health effects like silicosis and lungs cancer. So measurement of these dust concentration is necessary to know the impact of various mining activity on the surrounding environment. From the above view, this current project mainly focuses on the dust sampling by using high volume dust sampler i.e. Envirotech APM 460 NL and Envirotech APM 550, measuring the personal dust exposure of different workmen at different mining sites by using Personal Dust Sampler (Model Arelco Ineris CIP 10), and characterization of the dust collected from the filter paper by using FTIR (Fourier Transform Infra-Red spectroscopy). For this purpose Lajkura Opencast Project was chosen which produces 30 MT of coal per year for convenience, because as it is a large opencast mine so better knowledge can be gained from this mine regarding the concentration and effects of the dust. The dust sampling and monitoring was conducted during the month of March 2016 to get a good assess of dust. From the measurement through Envirotech APM 460NL the dust concentration was found out to be 1074µg/m3 and 984 µg/m3, and through Envirotech APM 550 dust concentration is found out to be 196 µg/m3. Personal dust exposure is also measured and the measured concentration was found to vary between 0.8mg/m3 to 1.3 mg/m3. From the characterization of the dust sample the compound that we found are Silica, Sulfates, Sulfoxide, and Carboxylates etc

Scenarios for the development of smart grids in the UK: synthesis report

‘Smart grid’ is a catch-all term for the smart options that could transform the ways society produces, delivers and consumes energy, and potentially the way we conceive of these services. Delivering energy more intelligently will be fundamental to decarbonising the UK electricity system at least possible cost, while maintaining security and reliability of supply. Smarter energy delivery is expected to allow the integration of more low carbon technologies and to be much more cost effective than traditional methods, as well as contributing to economic growth by opening up new business and innovation opportunities. Innovating new options for energy system management could lead to cost savings of up to £10bn, even if low carbon technologies do not emerge. This saving will be much higher if UK renewable energy targets are achieved. Building on extensive expert feedback and input, this report describes four smart grid scenarios which consider how the UK’s electricity system might develop to 2050. The scenarios outline how political decisions, as well as those made in regulation, finance, technology, consumer and social behaviour, market design or response, might affect the decisions of other actors and limit or allow the availability of future options. The project aims to explore the degree of uncertainty around the current direction of the electricity system and the complex interactions of a whole host of factors that may lead to any one of a wide range of outcomes. Our addition to this discussion will help decision makers to understand the implications of possible actions and better plan for the future, whilst recognising that it may take any one of a number of forms

Investing in Sustainable Energy Futures: Multilateral Development Banks' Investments in Energy Policy

Analyzes MDB loans for electricity projects and lays out policy reforms, regulations, and institutional capacities needed to enable public and private investment in sustainable energy and ways for MDBs to address them consistently and comprehensively

Longer Service Life Bridge Coatings

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) has maintenance oversight responsibilities for approximately 1,100 steel bridges; it also helps local governments and other entities with maintenance painting on other steel bridges. Because maintaining steel bridges is costly, Cabinet officials asked Kentucky Transportation Center (KTC) researchers to identify materials and methods that will prolong their service lives. Steel bridges are uniquely vulnerable to deterioration resulting from exposure to atmospheric conditions (e.g. moisture, ultraviolet rays) and chlorides, the latter due to the application of deicing materials. This study examines two strategies for extending service lives. First, it appraises a novel method of hot dip galvanization (HDG) and metallizing girders. Rather than dipping an entire girder in molten zinc at once, steel plates are immersed and then welded to form girders. In testing, all pieces that were coated using the method were adequately galvanized and metallized, thus establishing adequate protection against corrosion. The process can likely be scaled up and applied to larger steel pieces and girders. Next, researchers investigated whether carrying out an additional abrasive blast cleaning following power washing can reduce chloride levels. A second blast cleaning did not significantly lower chloride levels, and even led to slight increases, which may be the product of unreliable field testing or the use of recycled steel grit abrasive. Other methods of reducing chlorides should accordingly be investigated (e.g., specialized coating systems, high-performance coating systems)

A study of graduates and drop-outs to determine the effectiveness of the secondary schools in preparing for home and community living

In the belief that the real test of adequacy of any school program is determined by what youth do after they leave school, a follow-up study was made of the graduates and drop-outs from the high schools in Colleton County, South Carolina, during the five year period 1934-39. Very few, if any, follow-up contacts had been made by the schools to find out what the graduates and drop-outs were doing; the extent to which the school helped them in what they were doing; or how the school could at present serve these young people. "Presumably the State supports public education not so much to teach formal subjects of the school curriculum as to enable boys and girls to take an effective part in the life that lies ahead of them beyond the school.”1 If one of the chief functions of the secondary school is to help pupils make out-of-school adjustments to vocational, citizenship, and leisure-time activities, it would seem that one of the ways to measure the success of the school would be to make a follow-up study of youth after they leave school