Integrating Industrial Ecology Thinking into the Management of Mining Waste

Resources

Éléonore L຋re¹  Glen Corder² 

[1] Center for Social Responsibility in Mining, The Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia QLD 4072, Australia; E-Mail

关键词: mining;    metals;    eco-efficiency;    resilience;    mine waste;    sustainable development;    Material Flow Analysis;    industrial ecology;    sustainable resource management;   

DOI  :  10.3390/resources4040765

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Mining legacies are often dominated by large waste facilities and their associated environmental impacts. The most serious environmental problem associated with mine waste is heavy metals and acid leakage through a phenomenon called acid mine drainage (AMD). Interestingly, the toxicity of this leakage is partly due to the presence of valuable metals in the waste stream as a result of a diversity of factors influencing mining operations. A more preventive and recovery-oriented approach to waste management, integrated into mine planning and operations, could be both economically attractive and environmentally beneficial since it would: mitigate environmental impacts related to mine waste disposal (and consequently reduce the remediation costs); and increase the resource recovery at the mine site level. The authors argue that eco-efficiency and resilience (and the resulting increase in a mine’s lifetime) are both critical—yet overlooked—characteristics of sustainable mining operations. Based on these arguments, this paper proposes a framework to assist with identification of opportunities for improvement and to measure this improvement in terms of its contribution to a mine’s sustainability performance.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.