Environmental Impact Assessment - Mining and the Environment: From Ore to Metal - page 79

Mine planning information generated by the company or its appointed engineers is
the key to a successful environmental assessment. It dei nes the proposed project, reason-
able alternatives, and the scope and accuracy of the impact analyses. Relevant planning
information includes elements such as ore production forecasts, maximum mine capacity,
process systems, cutoff grade, tailings disposal system and location, facility requirements,
timing and phasing of development, labour requirements, and links with independent
planned or existing projects. Mining companies need to ensure that planning informa-
tion provided to the EIA team is technically sound, reasonably complete and current, and
provided in a timely fashion. Inadequacies identii ed in planning information during an
EIA can delay progress. At worst, the proposed mine plan and reasonable alternatives may
need to be modii ed, substantially delaying the environmental work schedule.

2.4 COMMON THEMES AND CORE PRINCIPLES

Environmental assessment is implemented in different ways in different countries, but all
have common themes and core principles (Modak and Biswas 1999; Canter 1996; Carroll
and Turpin 2002; OECD 1989, 1999; Petts 1999; Goodland and Mercier 1999; Tromans
and Fuller 2003; UNEP 1996; Wood 2003).

Environmental Assessment - A Process, Not a Study

Environmental assessment (EA) is a process, not a study or a document. In the case of a min-
ing project, environmental assessment starts with the initial environmental scoping and ends
with post-operation monitoring as shown in Figure 2.1 . In a wider sense, environmental
assessment also includes community development activities during the life of the mine. The
EA process consists of planning, executing, monitoring, and redirecting environmental man-
agement efforts. The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process is the planning tool,
documented in form of the Environmental Impact Statement and its supporting documenta-
tion. As such, EIA is only one element of environmental assessment.

Environmental assessment
is a process, not a study or a
document.

Focus on a Defi nable Geographic Area

One of the requirements of EIA is the determination of boundary conditions in space and time.
Where, spatially, does an impact assessment cease? With reference to a mining project for exam-
ple, should the EIA consider only the mining area and its immediate surroundings, or should it
also consider the environmental impacts of mineral exploitation and land clearing; power gener-
ation and therefore the impacts of coal mining by the coal supplier; the new seaport constructed
to export concentrates; or the larger host region in which economic impacts are felt?
Raff (1997) identii es and substantiates 10 basic principles of quality in EIA, distilled
from hundreds of cases, and which he consequently terms the common law of NEPA-
style EIA ( Table 2.2 ). Of these, the i rst principle provides some guidance in relation to
the EIA study boundary: 'an assessment cannot be restricted to site-specii c environmental
effects'. This is echoed in subsequent principles. The third principle is that 'greater plans'
must be assessed in addition to single phases in their execution (which leads to regional
development planning); and the fourth principle is the 'rule' against segmentation of the
project. In other words, the EIA must not solely assess individual aspects of the overall
mine proposal which on their own will yield negligible impacts; the sum or total effect of
the proposal on the environment must be identii ed and evaluated.