Introductory concepts

1. POLLUTION
PREVENTION and
MINING
ENVIRONMENTAL LAW INSTITUTE RESEARCH REPORT – JANUARY
2000

2. POLLUTION PREVENTION
The primary goal of the proposed definition of pollution
prevention is to incorporate all the measures necessary to
avoid or minimize the creation of costly contamination, while at
the same time create opportunities for economies and
efficiencies in the use of resources.
"The use of processes, practices, materials, products or energy
that avoid or minimize the creation of pollutants and waste and
reduce overall risk to human health and the environment.“
(Federal government of Canada)

3. Primary Objective: SOURCE REDUCTION
•reduces or eliminates the quantity or hazardous nature of
pollutants and waste at the point of generation.
•includes strategies to predict the occurrence of acid-forming
materials, arsenic, and toxic metals likely to be mobilized by mining
activities
•design operations to avoid or minimize contact with these
materials and/or assure their isolation
•can also include such strategies as substitution of cleaner
processes for more hazardous processes - such as prohibition of
mercury processes.

4. Secondary Objectives
• RECYLING
• TREATMENT
• SECURE DISPOSAL
• These are not adequate substitutes for a strong source
reduction program.

5. Secondary Objectives: RECYLING
• provides for the use or reuse of wastes as a substitute
for a commercial product or material in an industrial
process.
• include strategies such as closed-loop processes for
handling acids and cyanides
• maximizing the reclamation/reuse of tailings water.

6. Secondary Objectives: TREATMENT
• any method, technique, or process that changes the
physical, chemical or biological characteristics of waste
materials in a way that eliminates harmful
characteristics, recovers energy or useful materials in
the waste materials, leave them capable of being
reused or safely contained, or reduces their volume.

7. Secondary Objectives: SECURE DISPOSAL
• any method, technique or process that prevents residual
wastes from posing a threat to the environment.
• includes use of designed disposal units to prevent sulfide
materials from coming into contact with air and water and
generating acid mine drainage.
• may include placement of tailings in engineered structures
with appropriate management and diversion of water to
prevent mobilization and migration of pollutants

9. 10 ways to make mines
more environmentally
friendly
HTTPS://WWW.MININGGLOBAL.COM/TOP-10/TOP-10-WAYS-MAKE-
MINES-MORE-ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY

10. 1. Closing illegal and unregulated mines
2. Scrap mining and recycling
3. Better legislation and regulations
4. Improving environmental performance
5. Accurate tallying of toxic mining waste
6. Building from reusable waste
7. Closing and reclaiming sites of shut-down mines
8. Investing in research and development of Green Mining
Technology
9. Replenishing the environment
10.Improving the efficiency of manufacturing processes

11. Closing illegal and unregulated mines
The strict and swift closing of illegal or unregulated
mining activity will set an environmental precedent
within the industry.
After years of lax regulation and undisciplined
treatment of illegal, unpermitted mines, China's
government responded to a wave of public protest
and partly in its own self-interest enacted new policy
measures for greener mining. These were codified in
the Rare Earth Industrial Development Policy.

12. Scrap mining and recycling
By reducing the amount of wasteful use on a public and
private level, and by steering production towards the
sole use of durable goods that can be easily reusable,
re-manufactured, or recycled, the mining industry can
begin to reduce its impact on an international scale.
This creative trend of scrap mining, or utilizing ever-
reusable resource for other mining initiatives, stems
from the recognition of the environmental costs of
excessive materials use.

13. Better legislation and regulations
Standard legislation concerning the efficiency of
mining is a long way off from being the most
productive and most strict government mandates
that exists today.

14. Better legislation and regulations
Mines like the Island Copper Mine on Vancouver Island
stands as a highly regulated mine site that operated from
1971 until 1995 when it was closed for resource
depletion. It was due to the regulation and control of the
government that a detailed mine closure plan was
developed to comfortably close the mine in order to
protect the few resources which remained, and the B.C.
enacted the contaminated sites regulation process which
was awarded the Certificate of Conditional Compliance

15. Improving environmental performance
By systematically examining environmental impacts
and adopting measures to mitigate these impacts, it
is possible to make mining less destructive of the
environment. Incremental efficiency gains will not do
the job. Instead, an imaginative remaking of the
industrial world-one that aligns economies with the
natural environment that supports them is the
sustainable way forward. Recycling has a number of
advantages.

16. Accurate tallying of toxic mining waste
Another problem with the whole sustainable mining
debate has to do with secrecy in reporting toxic mining
waste. Mining companies have not been accurately
reporting the amounts being dumped into the
environment and in doing so, have kept the public in
the dark. While sustainable mining looks good on
paper and seems easy enough to follow provincial or
federal guidelines, the industry has a way to go before
it can be considered even remotely green.

17. Building from reusable waste
For example, aluminum can be substituted as a
recyclable material rather than using bauxite ore,
which is a rarer and less reusable item.
Recycling copper, which takes seven times less energy
than processing ore, recycling steel which uses three-
and-a-half times less energy than ore, can go a long
way in determining the longevity of a mine and its
positive environmental impact.

18. Closing and reclaiming sites of shut-down
mines
The dangers of allowing no longer working mines to exist
can not only allowing wasted debris the opportunity to
rot and decay on site, but it can lead to illegal or
unregulated mining activity.
The main objective in the reclaiming process is to return
the sire and the land which surrounds it back to reusable
standards, ensuring that any landforms and structures are
stable, and why watercourses need to be evaluated in
order to regain water quality within the affected area.

19. Investing in research and development of
Green Mining Technology
The mining industry is one that is always in need of
proper research and development in order to make
sure the industry to ever-changing with today’s
commitment to sustainability and turning the world
into a more “green friendly’ place.

20. Replenishing the environment
Simple solutions like replenishing native soils and grasses,
cleaning excess waste, proper waste removal, site
inspections and replanting trees and natural forestry can
rejuvenate a long-term ecosystem repair and sustain the
environment for years beyond when the mine is no longer
operating. The entire reclamation process should include:
removing hazardous materials, reshaping land, restoring
topsoil, and planting native grasses, trees or ground cover
natural to the site.

21. Improving the efficiency of manufacturing
processes
Supervision of the manufacturing process is essential
in order to develop new ways of thinking, new
metrics, and new management/supervisory tools that
will help cushion the transition into more efficient
and less environmentally-harmful patterns of
resource use in modern societies.

22. Improving the efficiency of manufacturing
processes
Material flows analyses will track the physical flows
of natural resources through extraction, production,
fabrication, use and recycling, and final disposal,
accounting for both the gains and losses occurring
throughout the supply chain.