The NSW Mine Safety Advisory Council has launched a new awareness campaign to tackle the risk from dust in the workplace, called “Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it is not there”. Dust...
Category - ENVIRONMENT
Environmental management now dominates a range of activities performed by mining companies globally. Mature mine operates recognise that their ‘license to operate’ is often determined by their past environmental performance and future plans to ensure that the environment impacted by mining operations is returned to, at the very least, pre-mining conditions.
Mining Environmental Issues and impacts of mining can occur at various stages of the mining life cycle. Exploration, Construction, Mining Operations, Closure and Remediation.
The environmental hazards of each activity and the impact of those activities can be determined by a range of factors including:
- The ore being mined;
- Characteristics of the ore body and its proximity to high impact areas;
- Ecosystem existing prior to mining activities and its’ sensitivity to the impact of mining operations;
- Methods of mining:
- Equipment used in the mining process including but not limited to production and ore processing equipment.
Typically the primary environmental concerns from mining activities include acid mine drainage, heavy metal contamination from leaching, chemical pollution from processing activities and control of erosion and sedimentation, dust deposition and environmental noise, however, there may be other impacts.
Effective environmental management in mining controls the impact of the mining activity in relation to the contamination of air, land and water and the subsequent impact of changes to the normalised conditions on the surrounding ecosystem.
Mining environmental issues management also interfaces with safety management in many organisations. Through understanding the impacts of the environment on personnel and the ecosystem in which they operate, miners may continue to build a sustainable industry.
Australasian Mine Safety Journal provides a range of information, case studies and news on the environmental issues and impacts of mining.
University of Queensland research into the eco-engineering of mine waste to a useful soil has received over $1.2 million in government and industry funding. The project Breaking critical...
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University of Queensland researchers have developed a framework that aims to reduce the mining industry’s impact on climate change by accounting for sources and sinks of greenhouse gas (GHG)...
The Chinese Government has launched a probe into the failure of Yichun Luming Mining Co Ltd tailings storage facility which saw contaminated water sources more than 100 kilometres downstream of a...
UNSW Sydney will add to its credentials as a world-leader on climate science, renewable energy and sustainability by moving away from investment in fossil fuels. The University will divest from...
As Vale begins recovery processes associated with the Brumadinho disaster, another environmental disaster is looming off the coast of North Brazil. A contracted ship carrying Vale iron ore to China...
A new study of a Scottish sea loch which reconstructs 5,000 years of its climate history is casting doubt on hopes that ‘blue carbon’ could help slow the rate of global heating. ‘Blue carbon’ is the...
Australian Concrete Mats (ACM) is an innovative and permanent erosion control protection solution that makes stabilising slopes, water channels, inlet/outlet protection, spillways and shorelines easy...
A CO2CRC research project, the Otway Stage 2C project, has provided important findings into carbon dioxide (CO2) injected deep underground as part of the emissions reduction technology known as...
University of Queensland researchers have developed a framework that aims to reduce the mining industry’s impact on climate change by accounting for sources and sinks of greenhouse gas (GHG)...
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