The Range of Environmental Concerns - Mining and the Environment: From Ore to Metal - page 541

contributed around 79 million tonnes (excluding coal) (IEA 2006) - that is less than 1%.
However the picture changes dramatically if coal combustion is taken into account: based
on a global coal production of about 2,620 million tonnes in 2004, the coal consumption
added about 10,592 million tonnes of CO 2 , or 63% of the total CO 2 emissions.
Excluding coal from the energy mix appears, at least in the foreseeable future, to be
unrealistic. On the basis of energy content, coal combustion releases about 25% more CO 2
than oil and 75% more CO 2 than natural gas. However, carbon dioxide in the atmos-
phere is less of an issue for coal per se than for energy growth, and energy mix. Given the
ever-increasing demand for energy, coal consumption is certain to continue growing. By
some estimates in the next 20 years global coal use may grow by 60% (IEA 2002, 2006).
Carbon-capture storage (CCS) and 'zero carbon-emission' plants are some of the tech-
nical answers to reducing CO 2 caused by coal consumption. In the CCS process, CO 2 is
captured and separated from other gaseous emissions and then injected into a suitable host
rock formation. It was pioneered by the oil and gas industries to enhance oil recovery from
existing reservoirs. Indeed, CCS is widely advocated as a saviour for the industry; yet the
technology is still under development, its economics are uncertain and it does not com-
pletely eliminate carbon waste.
Several CCS projects are underway in the mining industry. Alcoa is operating a pilot
CCS project at Kwinana in Western Australia which, as well as using underground stor-
age, mixes CO 2 waste with bauxite residues from the rei nery process. This reduces the
high level of alkalinity in the bauxite residues, a benei cial side benei t to the aluminium
industry. Alcoa's i rst carbon capture plant at Kwinana is locking-up 70,000 tonnes of CO 2
a year. The CO 2 is produced by a nearby ammonia plant and would otherwise be emitted
to the atmosphere (AAC 2006).
Rio Tinto and BP are in the feasibility stage of a coal-i red power-generation project
which aims to capture 4 million tonnes per year of CO 2 from 2014, also at Kwinana.
Anglo American and Shell Energy Investments Australia are in the pre-feasibility stage
of a project which is designed to produce ultra-clean synthetic diesel from brown coal in
Victoria, Australia. Up to 50 million tonnes per year of CO 2 waste will then be injected
into the ground. Completion is expected in 2016 ( Case 13.11 ).
Control of particulate matters (PM) emissions is well-established. The use of elec-
trostatic precipitators (ESP) with a removal efi ciency of up to 99.5% is common prac-
tice. The major concern is that the removal efi ciency of ESP for very small particles

On the basis of energy content,
coal combustion releases about
25% more CO 2 than oil and 75%
more CO 2 than natural gas.

CASE 13.10
Anvil Coal Project in NSW, Australia

The Anvil Hill Coal Project proposes an open-cut mine near
Wybong in the upper Hunter Valley, to extract up to 150
million tonnes of coal over a 21-year period for both
domestic electricity generation and export. The environmental
assessment was prepared and exhibited during 2006. An
environmental opponent successfully challenged a step in the
assessment process, satisfying the court that the environmen-
tal assessment was defective because it did not contain a
detailed assessment of scope 3 emissions, namely an assess-
ment of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced by
combustion of the coal. The court, however, allowed the

environmental assessment process to continue, because
additional information about downstream GHG emissions was
in fact provided by the proponent during the assessment
process. The supplemented environmental assessment and
more than 2000 submissions made during the exhibition
period were considered by the Director-General of the NSW
Department of Planning and also by an independent panel
of experts, who reported to the Minister who subsequently
approved the project, subject to conditions, on 7 June 2007.
This decision sets a signifi cant new standard for future
mining developments in NSW. It requires that the global

warming impacts of proposed projects be considered as
part of the planning process. Indeed, its implications may
extend beyond the mining sector in NSW and require all
new coal mine developments to undertake a global warm-
ing impact study. What is unclear, however, is the depth of
analysis of global warming impacts that might be required,
and what steps to address those impacts might be deemed
acceptable.

Source: Allens Arthur Robinson (2006, 2007)