Looking Ahead - Mining and the Environment: From Ore to Metal - page 847

A Strategy for Eliminating Adverse Visual Effects of Mining

The aim of this initiative would be to enable all areas affected by future mining activi-
ties to be totally rehabilitated, meaning that mining would have a 'zero residual footprint'.
This would generally require that there be no more 'i nal voids'. Many operations such
as underground mines, mineral sands, and open cast bauxite and other shallow laterite
mines, already achieve this objective and would therefore be unaffected. Most coal strip
mines, although leaving i nal voids under existing mine plans, could modify their spoil
placement operations to eliminate i nal voids, without enormous i nancial detriment.
Other mines would either need to change their methods or would need to accrue funds
for the back-i lling of mined out areas, following the completion of mining. Imposition
of such requirements would bankrupt existing operations involving large open pits. Such
operations currently supply most of the world's copper, iron ore and lignite. Clearly, if such
a strategy was to be implemented, existing projects including those under development at
the time of agreement, would need to be 'grandfathered', which means that they would be
permitted to continue until closure using the original approach.
It is likely that any agreement to eliminate i nal voids would mean that some types of
deposit (such as lignites) would not be mined, others would be only partly mined, while yet
others would be mined using a different approach. For example, a long narrow ore body such
as the Mt Newman iron deposit in Western Australia could be mined sequentially, with hind-
casting of waste rock, once full depth is achieved at one end. The large copper porphyries
could be partly mined by open cast methods, particularly where the ore body outcrops on the
crest of a mountain. However, the suggested strategy would tip the i nancial balance in favour
of underground mining, so that methods such as block caving would become more common.
If adopted, this approach would lead to increased costs of some commodities, particu-
larly, copper, gold and iron ore. However, as the industry adjusts and develops new, lower
cost technologies for backi lling, those incremental costs would reduce.
To have any chance of successful implementation, such a strategy would require over-
whelming acceptance by the mining industry, followed by regulatory support from coun-
tries throughout the world. The key to acceptance would be that there be no exceptions - all
companies would be subject to the same conditions. There would also need to be agreement
as to what constitutes acceptable rehabilitation.

Building Capacity for Improved Environmental Performance

In the recent past, there have been important initiatives aimed at improving environmental
impact assessment practice, most notably the IFC Environmental and Social Performance
Standards of 2006. Arguably, the main change is the shift of attention from planning to
implementation. In the past an environmental impact assessment study was seen, in isola-
tion, as a planning tool; today it is the foundation of an environmental management pro-
gramme, addressing environmental business risks and opportunities from the beginning
of the mine development up to the mine closure and beyond.
But the process is increasingly complex, and it would be unrealistic to assume that the
necessary expertise is always accessible. All stakeholders, including i nancial institutions,
local government ofi cials, communities that are now increasingly asked to participate in
the EIA process, and the mining companies themselves, face a bewildering maze of inter-
national standards and local laws and practices, highlighting the need for capacity building
at all levels of the approval and implementation processes. This is a challenge the mining
sector must confront, and respond to positively over the foreseeable future.

Arguably, the main change is the
shift of attention from planning
to implementation.