Safeguarding the environment

— The following is an excerpt from Mining Explained, published by The Northern Miner.

Mining companies supply the metals and minerals humanity uses for shelter, survival, work and pleasure, as well as the expansion into space and interplanetary endeavours. At the same time, they want to conduct this business in an environmentally responsible manner. Yet mining, by its very nature, requires that land, air and water systems be disturbed. While the economic benefits of the industry are as important today as they ever were, the public has become increasingly concerned about the impact mining is having on the natural environment.

The metals and industrial minerals that mining produces can find their way into the environment and become pollutants. The byproducts that occur with the metals, such as sulphur and arsenic, can be dangerous to the environment if they are released. The fuels and chemicals the industry uses to do its job are also potential pollutants. Mining creates and employs hazardous substances that must be handled with care.

Other pollutants produced by the mining industry are of concern more to the workers in the industry than to the public at large. Dusts, for example, which are often hygienically hazardous, are produced by many mining activities. Noise, too, is a form of pollution, of concern for those in the work environment, and in uranium mines, the products of radioactive decay are a major concern.

The challenge for companies is to find, extract and process mineral resources with the least possible disruption to the environment. To meet this challenge, they adopt a broad range of protective measures, including: sensitive treatment of the land during exploration; environmental and aesthetic management of land under development; environmentally sustainable production procedures during the mining and metallurgical processes; and decommissioning and reclamation practices aimed at restoring the land.

Environmental performance and accountability are important for mining companies, their shareholders and the public. Most companies now include a discussion of environmental issues in their annual reports so as to keep shareholders and the public informed about the steps being taken to protect the land, water and air quality at their operations.

Bad old days

Mankind hasn’t always kept its house clean. Old mining operations frequently dumped wastes without concern for their physical or chemical stability or used milling and smelting techniques that released pollutants into the atmosphere, lakes and rivers. Some gold ores, for example, used to be roasted. These were heated until sulphur and arsenic in the ores were driven off as gases, which were released directly into the atmosphere. Another technique, the amalgamation process, used mercury to extract gold from ore. The mercury was then boiled off, leaving the gold behind. This process released mercury — one of the most environmentally hazardous of all the metals — into the atmosphere and often let it enter soil or water through spills. The poorly controlled burning of fossil fuels used to run mills and fire smelters also took its toll on the environment.

People began to realize that fouled environments are unproductive and hostile, and as a result, environmental controls became stricter and governments started making sure industries no longer made the mess they used to make. Most industrialized countries have regulations governing air emissions, effluent discharges to watercourses, and the disposal of solid wastes. Many less-developed countries, though they sometimes feel themselves faced with a choice between economic growth and a safe environment, are likewise adopting stricter regulations.

Both stricter regulations and the knowledge that environmental responsibility serves everyone’s interest have prompted mining companies to develop their own codes of practice to ensure that operations do not harm their surroundings. Their goal is to adhere to these standards both at home and abroad.