In the last three decades, mining companies and their stakeholders have become increasingly aware of the need to develop mineral resources in a manner that contributes to sustainable development. Stakeholders have put forth various frameworks to assess sustainability performance of mining and to guide public policy and debate. However, there is debate on which framework best assesses sustainability performance with different stakeholders differing in their opinions. Also, we continue to learn more about the sustainable development impacts of mineral resource development and exploitation. Geoscience and mining professional associations and researchers have a significant role to play in ensuring there is clarity in the areas of confusion and sustainable mining best practices are developed, promoted and used in various contexts. This keynote address discusses the role of geoscience and mining professional associations and researchers in facilitating more sustainable mining practices. The address discusses key sustainability frameworks, and uses case studies to illustrate how research can enhance the contribution of mining to sustainable development.

1. Sustainable Mining Practices:
The Role of Professional
Associations and Researchers
Kwame Awuah-Offei, PhD, PE
Associate Professor of Mining Engineering

2. > In the last 30 years, mining companies & their
stakeholders have embraced sustainable development
practices & concepts
> Most top mining companies now recognize the need for
more than environmental compliance
Mining & Sustainability
Environmental
compliance
ISO 1400 EMS
Corporate Social
Responsibility
Sustainability

3. Sustainability means many things

5. ICMM Principles
1 Apply ethical business practices and sound
systems of corporate governance and
transparency to support sustainable
development
6 Pursue continual improvement in
environmental performance issues, such as
water stewardship, energy use and climate
change
2 Integrate sustainable development in
corporate strategy and decision-making
processes
7 Contribute to the conservation of biodiversity
and integrated approaches to land-use planning
3 Respect human rights and the interests,
cultures, customs and values of employees and
communities affected by our activities
8 Facilitate and support the knowledge-base and
systems for responsible design, use, re-use,
recycling and disposal of products containing
metals and minerals
4 Implement effective risk-management
strategies and systems based on sound science
and which account for stakeholder perceptions
of risks
9 Pursue continual improvement in social
performance and contribute to the social,
economic and institutional development of host
countries and communities
5 Pursue continual improvement in health and
safety performance with the ultimate goal of
zero harm
10 Proactively engage key stakeholders on
sustainable development challenges and
opportunities in an open and transparent
manner. Effectively report and independently
verify progress and performance

6. Sustainable resource development contributes to SD goals

7. “Yet today, a paradox seems to be emerging. In spite of improved
performance, mining operation-community conflict appears to be on
the rise. While the number of mines is similarly increasing (Miller,
2014; personal communication) across the world, it is not clear what is
behind this apparent paradox.”
– Hodge, R. A. (2014). Mining company performance and community conflict:
moving beyond a seeming paradox. Journal of Cleaner Production, 84, 27-33.
Challenges still exist
Source: Mathews et al. (2004)

8. > Develop standards of practice for their members based
on the best science and our current understanding of
the SD impacts of mining
> Develop codes of ethics and enforce these for their
members
> Disseminate information on the best science through
conferences and journals
> Facilitate continued discussion and research
Professional Associations should…

9. Ethics

10. PREAMBLE: Members of The American Institute of Professional Geologists are
dedicated to the highest standards of personal integrity and professional conduct.
The Institute’s Code of Ethics comprises three parts: the Canons, which are broad
principles of conduct; the Ethical Standards, which are goals to which
Members aspire; and the Rules of Conduct. Compliance with the Rules of
Conduct is mandatory and violation of any Rule will be grounds for
disciplinary action by the Institute. Under the Bylaws, the Institute may also
impose discipline for legal violations and because of the suspension or
revocation of registration or licensure, among other grounds. Disciplinary
action may take the form of private admonition, public reprimand, suspension
of membership, or termination. The Code of Ethics applies to all professional
activities of Members and Adjuncts, wherever and whenever they occur. The title
“Member” where used in this Code of Ethics shall include Adjuncts. A Member shall
not be relieved of an ethical responsibility by virtue of his or her employment,
because the Member has delegated an assignment to a subordinate, or because
the Member was not involved in performing services for compensation.
AIPG Code of Ethics

11. > Explore questions to increase our understanding of the
sustainable development impacts of mining
> Develop SD metrics that are more relevant to
evaluating SD impacts of mining
> Develop & disseminate more sustainable mining
practices
Researchers should…

12. > LCA is a useful technique for evaluating cradle to grave
impacts
> Limited (but improving) mining data sets
> Databases are black boxes when it comes to mining
impacts
Life Cycle Assessment
© 2017 - Marcel Gómez Consultoria Ambiental.

13. > Economies of scale have
significant effect on life cycle
impacts
> Geologic factors are
significant
– Coalbed methane content
– Coal quality
– Stripping ratios
Effect of mine characteristics
0
20
40
60
80
100
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
Climatechangeimpact(kgCO2-
eq)
Log of annual production (million
tons)
Ditsele, O., & Awuah-Offei, K. (2012). Effect of mine characteristics on life cycle impacts
of US surface coal mining. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 17(3), 287-
294.

15. > Elevated CO2 concentrations in homes
is now being recognized as a safety &
health hazard
– 4 fatalities in the literature
– [CO2] > 25% (STEL = 0.5%)
– [O2] < 10% (STEL = 19.5%)
> Several cases reported in several states
(OH, PA, WV, IN), UK, & Canada.
> Source = AMD-carbonate neutralization
CO2 Hazards on Reclaimed Mine Land
2
( ) 3( ) ( ) 2 ( ) 2( )2  
   aq s s l gH CaCO Ca H O CO

17. CA Trace Gas Monitoring
Chiodini, G., Caliro, S., Cardellini, C., Avino, R.,
Granieri, D., & Schmidt, A. (2008). Carbon isotopic
composition of soil CO 2 efflux, a powerful method
to discriminate different sources feeding soil CO 2
degassing in volcanic-hydrothermal areas. Earth
and Planetary Science Letters, 274(3), 372-379.

18. > Godin Site, Sommerset, PA
> Hudson Site, IN
> Germantown, MO
Study sites & sampling plans

19. We showed that CO2 fluxes on reclaimed mine land is
sometimes spatially correlated
Spatial Correlation
Study
site
Data set No. of
samples
Global
Moran’s I
Expected
value
Std.
Deviation
Z value p-value
Hudson
Day 1 131 0.702 - 0.00763 0.0834 8.45 < 0.0001
Day 2 136 0.528 - 0.00741 0.084 6.42 <0.0001
Day 3 131 0.475 -0.00763 0.0922 5.24 <0.0001
Godin
Day 1 71 -0.198 -0.0143 0.201 -0.912 0.3618
Day 2 71 0.098 -0.0143 0.202 0.555 0.5772
Day 3 71 0.241 -0.0143 0.208 1.228 0.2193
German-
town
Day 1 40 -0.106 -0.0256 0.489 -0.1652 0.8688
Day 2 88 -0.093 -0.0115 0.984 -0.0829 0.9339
Day 3 98 0.154 -0.0103 0.0536 3.070 0.0021
Mathiba, M., & Awuah-Offei, K. (2015). Spatial autocorrelation of soil CO2 fluxes on
reclaimed mine land. Environmental Earth Sciences, 73(12), 8287-8297

20. Hazard Delineation
• Awuah-Offei, K., Mathiba, M., & Baldassare, F. J. (2016). Identifying the Presence of
AMD-Derived Soil CO2 in Field Investigations Using Isotope Ratios. Minerals, 6(1), 18.
• Awuah-Offei, K., Que, S., & Mathiba, M. (2016). Delineating hazardous CO2 fluxes from
acid mine drainage. Environmental Earth Sciences, 75(3), 1-11.

21. > Developing mineral resources for sustainability
depends on:
– Community perceptions of the project
– The interaction between the project and the community
Community-Mine Interactions
> Community engagement &
perceptions linked to social
license to operate & socio-
political risks

22. > Engineers, often, design development alternatives
based on trade-offs between different impacts, without
fully understanding community members’ preferences
> We need better understanding of these preferences in
order to design alternatives that are more likely to meet
host community aspirations.
> No formalized objective framework exists for evaluating
these questions over time.
Problem Statement

23. Objective & Approach
Main
concepts
Goal
To improve
understanding of
the relationship
between
sustainability of
mining projects
and their
community
acceptance.
ABM
Discrete
Choice Theory
Social
Networks

24. > Based on random utility maximization
> Decision maker’s overall preference for an
alternative is a function of the utility
Discrete Choice Theory
T
ni ni ni ni U β x ε

25. Case Study: Salt Lake City, UT, USA
No. of
participants
Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Total
Invited
755 669 >386 >1,810
Started
485 316 386 1,062
Completed
(i.e. answered all
question to the
end)
300 261 261 882
Terminated by
quality control
question or
survey duration
12 10 22 44
Excluded due to
demographic
factors
74 40 36 150
Final qualified 214 211 203 628
Demographics Sample SLC
Gender
Male 47% 50%
Female 53% 50%
Age
18—25 9% 18%
26—34 28% 26%
35—54 34% 31%
55—64 16% 12%
>65 13% 13%
Highest education
<high school 0% 14%
High school/GED 10% 18%
Some college vocational, or
2 year college degree
34% 27%
>Bachelor's degree 56% 41%
Annual income
< $20,000 7% 22%
$20,000—$39,999 21% 23%
$40,000—$59,999 22% 18%
=>$60,000 51% 37%
> 21,600 data:
3 groups × 200 subjects (minimum) ×
4 blocks × 3 choice sets × 3 alternatives

26. Modeling Results
Parameter Coefficient Parameter Coefficient
Intercept 0.8931**
Economic Social
Job opportunities 1.1259*** Population increase -0.0709
Income increase 0.6600*** Infrastructure improvement 0.6527***
Increase in housing costs -1.0416*** Crime increase -1.1753***
Labor shortage
for other business
-0.0924** Traffic increase -0.1938***
Environmental Governance and other
Noise pollution -0.9580*** Decision making
mechanism
0.1634***
Water pollution -0.1956*** Information available 0.8460***
Air pollution -1.0952*** Mine buffer 0.6684***
Land pollution -0.2485*** Mine life 0.1181***
Demographic factors ***1% significance level
Age 0.0100** **5% significance level
Gender -0.0200* *10% significance level
Household income 0.0043*
Education 0.0013*

27. > An approach to modeling
complex-adaptive systems
using multiple agents, that
interact based on “simple”
rules, to capture overall
system behavior
> Key elements
– Agents
– Agent interaction (topology)
– Environment
Agent-based Modeling
27
Agent Interactions
with Other Agents
Agent Interactions with
the Environment
Agent Attributes:
 Static: name, gender…
 Dynamic: memory, resources
Methods:
 Behaviors
 Behaviors that modify behaviors
 Update rules for dynamic attributes

28. > Discrete choice model can serve as utility function
> We chose to use the odds ratio based on the utility
function
Agent Utility Function
T
ni ni ni ni U β X ε
 T
a b
abOR e


β x x

29. > Agent’s interact through a social network (network
topology)
> Agent’s exchange information on their perceptions of
the mine’s attributes
> New perceptions “diffuse” through the network from
agent to agent
Agent Interaction …over time

30. > We used the Bass Model for information diffusion
> We have implemented two kinds of diffusion models
– With and without agent innovation
– With and without social value to adopt innovation
Diffusion Models
 
       1
dF t
p qF t F t
dt
 
1 d
d d
v


 




31. > For the model with innovation but without aging etc., we examined three
major parameters (p, q and average degree of the network)
> Sensitivity assessed using variance decomposition methods1
> First order and total effects sensitivity indices estimated using 1,024
replications
Sensitivity Analysis
Parameter Distribution
Probability of innovation, p Uniform [0.01, 0.07]
Probability of imitation, q Uniform [0.0005, 0.01]
Degree of social network Uniform [5, 30]
1 Saltelli A, Ratto M, Andres T, et al (2008)
Global Sensitivity Analysis. The Primer.

32. > Research and appropriate technology transfer to facilitate safe &
environmentally responsible artisanal mining
> How does mining contribute to the cyclical economy?
> Tailings and the risks they pose to the environment
> How to create growth media on tailings to facilitate revegetation
using native species
> Acid mine drainage continues to be a huge problem
> Passive and phytoremediation using native species
Many other research questions remain

33. > The mining industry has made significant progress in the last 30
years or so
> Societal expectations have also increased in that space
> Mining has and continues to contribute to development
> Professional societies like SODOGEO have a role to play to
ensure mines of the future are more sustainable
> Contextual research is necessary to ensure mining contributes to
SD
Summary

34. Muchas Gracias!
Kwame Awuah-Off
kwamea@mst.edu