Environmental Impact Assessment - Mining and the Environment: From Ore to Metal - page 101

In summary, as environmental documentation continues to increase in volume and
complexity, methods must be developed to ensure that EIAs and other environmental
documents are distributed as widely as needed, while reducing document bulk. Although
it is probably not practical to think of the 'paperless EIA', there are some efforts that may be
undertaken. EIA documentation can be made available on compact disk, which allows wide
dissemination at a much lower cost than otherwise could have been accomplished. Likewise,
most multilateral banking i nancing institutions upload a signii cant part of the environmen-
tal information, at least the Executive Summary, to a site on the World Wide Web.
Our closing comment addresses the need to produce and distribute EIA documenta-
tion for the approval process, typically involving 40 to 50 sets of documents for each round
of EIA presentation to the approval authorities, depending on the host government EIA
legislation. The effort involved in terms of time and cost is considerable.

2.8 OBTAINING EIA APPROVAL

Review of the environmental impact assessment documentation as part of the EIA
approval process is one of the main checks built into most national EIA guidelines.
Depending on the national, state or provincial legislation, the review process is carried out
by an environmental agency, inter-departmental committee, commission of independent
experts, or a review panel that may combine several of the aforementioned groups.
The review panel is a group of experts selected on the basis of their knowledge and exper-
tise, appointed by the approving authority to review and assess, in an impartial and objective
manner, a project with probable adverse environmental effects. The review panel submits
its recommendations to the responsible approval authority. Review panels have the unique
capacity to encourage an open discussion and exchange of views. They often inform and
involve large numbers of interested groups and members of the public by allowing individ-
uals to present evidence, concerns, and recommendations. The panel allows the mining com-
pany to present the proposed mining project and to explain projected environmental effects,
and provides opportunities for the company to hear the views of government experts about
the project, as well as the views of the public if it is invited to EIA presentations.
The review panel often recommends whether the mine proposal should proceed, or
requires additional study and revision, or if it is environmentally unsatisfactory or not fea-
sible. In the worst case, the mine project proposal must be withdrawn, and may or may
not be acceptable as a resubmitted, redesigned project.
In practice, environmental impact assessment reports are rarely rejected. Environmental
assessment is a process and reviewers of the i nal EIA are commonly consulted during the EIA
preparation. A mine proposal that is environmentally unacceptable would normally be recog-
nized as such well before the formal submittal of the EIA documentation to the review panel.
The duty of the EIA compiler is not to persuade the decision-maker to cast a vote in
favour of the project. The EIA compiler has the responsibility to bring environmental and
social issues into focus, and to provide signii cant input into the development of alterna-
tive management strategies, and thus into the decision-making process. The EIA compiler
assigns somewhat subjective weights to conclusions on environmental and social impacts.
The presentation of i ndings should be clear enough to allow decision-makers to change
these weightings to accommodate other considerations or their own experience.
The project proponent cannot always assume that the review panel has the resources
or the experience to reach educated decisions. Mining as a whole, or specii c mining min-
eral processing technologies, may be new to the members of the review panels. The review
authority may lack the funds to invite all review members to site visits or study tours and

A mine proposal that is
environmentally unacceptable
would normally be recognized
as such well before the
formal submittal of the EIA
documentation to the review
panel.