Identifying and Evaluating Impacts - Mining and the Environment: From Ore to Metal - page 401

than multi-national mining companies that attract attention from a wide range of advocacy
groups. Locally owned companies also tend to receive favoured treatment compared to for-
eign-owned companies. Unfortunately there is also a common misperception in developing
countries that foreign mining companies have unlimited i nancial resources; requests for
gifts or 'i nancial' contributions to support approval are not uncommon.
The above illustrates that the length of time needed to complete an EIA will eventu-
ally hinge on the extent of co-operation received from third parties such as local govern-
ment, the level of interest and support demonstrated by the community, the skills of the
EIA team, and to a lesser extent, on the EIA methodologies employed. When all these
factors are combined, the completion and approval of an EIA will vary anywhere from
one year to three years for large mining projects. Accordingly, an EIA prepared at the out-
set of project planning should take no longer to complete than the project design. Unless
the environmental assessment proves to be highly complicated (or the project proves to be
highly controversial), this is probably more time than is really necessary.
Because the preparation of an EIA is a major undertaking, the success and quality of
the outcome largely depends on the expertise of the study team. Based on the complex-
ity and nature of the project, the study team needs to draw upon the skills of specialists in
physical, chemical, technical, biological, social, and economic sciences, expertise that may
not be readily available in the host country. Another aspect of expertise is familiarity with
the environment and regulatory setting of the project area and familiarity with the pro-
posed mining technology. As a general rule, subjective approaches and methods should
not be used in environmental assessment without familiarity with local environmental
conditions. Some analyses are not feasible unless extensive data sets are available. This
constraint must be recognized, as well as the cost and time requirements of collecting and
interpreting such data.

Completion and approval of an
EIA will vary anywhere from
one year to three years for large
mining projects.

Objectivity of Impact Assessment

An environmental assessment is never entirely objective. In spite of the best intentions
of involved stakeholders, be it the mining company, the appointed EIA consultant, the
approval authority, or involved advocacy groups, stakeholders tend to be biased. And even
if they were entirely objective, i nancial, technical, or scientii c limitations probably intro-
duce subjective view-points. This important aspect will be discussed in more detail later
in this chapter. In practice, however, a wide variety of view-points is usually found among
those involved - even within the EIA study team - and the presence of opposing view-
points tends to mitigate against any systemic bias.

An environmental assessment is
never entirely objective.

9.2 DECIDING ON A DIRECTION

A common approach used by scientists in the study of complex relationships is to break
down the relationships into individual components by identifying characteristic elements
and traits of the subject matter under consideration. In the study of environmental impacts,
characteristic elements and traits are impact categories and signii cance attributes of impacts.
Impacts are categorized as direct, indirect, and cumulative, and as impact interactions,
impact categories that overlap ( Table 9.2 ). Since an environmental impact is independent
of its categorization, categorizing impacts is a tool, not an end.

Since an environmental impact is
independent of its categorization,
categorizing impacts is a tool, not
an end.