Mining as an activity has a huge detrimental impact on environment is an undisputable fact. To ensure that this highly profitable commercial venture remain sustainable in the long term, it is vital that the mining companies monitor their environmental impact, report it publically in a transparent manner and take all the necessary steps to mitigate the impact and help restore the environment. In such an environmentally deteriorating business, it is imperative that diamond miners take responsibility of their enterprising actions and help restore the damage caused to environment, starting with implementing good Environment Management Systems (EMS) and becoming ISO 14001 compliant, which currently only 35% of diamond mines are. Considering the alarming impact on environment, if no radical changes are made to the existing diamond mining practices it will become utterly difficult to save our planet (forget about spreading the emotions of love and romance)!!

1. Copyright © 2014 Better Diamond Initiative. All rights reserved
www.betterdiamondinitiative.org
ENVIRONMENTAL COST
OF MINED DIAMONDS
IS ALARMING
Image Courtesy: Edward Burtynsky – ‘Nickel Tailings #24’,
Olivia Jensen, China Water Risk

2. Environmental cost of Mined Diamonds is alarming
Considering the environmental impact of top 11 responsible diamond mines (due to lack of sufficient data and info of other diamond mines,
available in public domain), on an average,
3.10 Tons of earth displacement
0.056 CO2e Tons of GHG emissions
8.9 Liters of fuel consumption
0.34 GJ of energy usage
2,534.78 Liters of water usage
1 carat
of
mined diamond
causes
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3. Environmental cost of Mined Diamonds is alarming
Applying these averages to 2012 global rough diamond production of 128 Million Carats (though the real impact may actually be much more
severe), following is the environmental impact caused by mined diamonds every year
396.84
Million Tons
of
Earth
Displacement
19.84% of Mount Fuji1
At this rate, in little over 5 years a mountain as big
as Mount Fuji can be brought down to surface
1 Derived using the mass of Mount Fiji calculated at http://w-uh.com/articles/030917b-really_moving_Mou.html
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4. Environmental cost of Mined Diamonds is alarming
7.1513
CO2e
Million Tons
of
Emissions
1.5+ million
vehicles running for a year2
2 Derived using Energy calculator at http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-resources/calculator.html
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5. 1,139.23
Million Liters
of
Fuel
Consumption
Environmental cost of Mined Diamonds is alarming
8,500+ New York – London return flights3
3 Derived considering Boeing 747’s fuel consumption of 12 liters/ Km
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6. Environmental cost of Mined Diamonds is alarming
43.68
Million GJ
of
Energy Usage
1+ million
US household’s
annual electricity consumption4
4 Derived considering 2012 EIA average of electricity consumption of 11,319 kWh per household
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7. 324,451
Million Liters
of
Water
Usage
Environmental cost of Mined Diamonds is alarming
5+ months
of water consumption by
Kenya’s entire 41.8 million population5
5 Derived considering 2006 average water usage in Kenya of 46 liters/ person/ day available at
http://www.data360.org/dsg.aspx?Data_Set_Group_Id=757 and Kenya’s 2013 population of 41.8 million
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8. Environmental cost of Mined Diamonds is alarming
Environmental impact of top 11 responsible Diamond mines
1 Note: Actual data reported have been converted to bring it to a standard UOM and make it comparable)
2 Earth displacement includes Soil, materials, waste, rocks etc.
3 Total Fuel includes Petrol, Diesel, Gas, Others
4 Water usage of Petra Diamond mines are 2012 figures
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9. Environmental cost of Mined Diamonds is alarming
Apart from Anglo American Plc in the RobecoSAM Gold Class and Rio Tinto in the RobecoSAM Bronze class
(both into diversified mining), the Mining sector list of the 2014 Dow Jones Sustainability Indices
is composed of non-diamond mining companies
Hardly any diamond mining companies
Ø report on Global Reporting Initiative (GRI);
Ø implement International Council on Mining & Metals (ICMM) Sustainable
Development principles and framework, AA1000 Assurance Standard;
Ø enrol to Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP);
Ø appear on CDP S&P 500 (Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index);
Ø conform to Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)
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10. Environmental cost of Mined Diamonds is alarming
Mined Diamond’s (Un)amazing Tidbits
Mirny Mine in Russia in its more than 4 decades of operations was dug 525 meters deep
and 1,200 meters wide. This second largest excavated hole in the world created
downward air flow that caused some incidents of helicopters being sucked in and was
later declared as a No-flying zone!!
In Russian Federation, CO2 is not included in the list of harmful (containment)
substances subject to registration and emission rating by a 2010 order of Ministry of
Natural resources and Environment!! (So much for the Environment!!)
In 27 years till 2002 an estimated 4 million in Angola and between 1991 and 2002
around 2 million people in Sierra Leone were displaced, all largely discredited to Diamond
mining and its repercussions!!
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11. Environmental cost of Mined Diamonds is alarming
Considering the alarming impact on environment,
unless no radical changes are made to the
existing diamond mining practices, it will become
utterly difficult to save our planet!!
Read the full article on
http://betterdiamondinitiative.org/environmental-cost-of-mined-diamonds-is-alarming/
/BetterDiamondInitiative
@betterdiamonds
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