Carbon Emission Prediction Model for the Underground Mining Stage of Metal Mines

Gaofeng Ren, Wei Wang, Wenbo Wu (), Yong Hu and Yang Liu
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Gaofeng Ren: School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
Wei Wang: School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
Wenbo Wu: School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
Yong Hu: Hubei Sanxin Gold-Copper Co., Ltd., Daye 435100, China
Yang Liu: Hubei Carbon Emission Trading Center Co., Ltd., Wuhan 430070, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 17, 1-19

Abstract: At present, the carbon emissions in China’s metal mining industry can be calculated based on the amount of energy consumed in the mining process. However, it is still difficult to predict the carbon emissions before implementation of mining engineering. There are no effective approaches that could reasonably estimate the amount of carbon emissions before mining. To this end, based on the ‘Top–down’ carbon emission accounting method recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), this study proposes a model to predict the greenhouse gases emitted in seven carbon-intensive mining stages, namely, drilling, blasting, ventilation, drainage, air compression, transportation, and backfilling. The contribution of this model is to enable a prediction of the accumulation of greenhouse gases based on the mining preliminary design of mine, rather than on the consumption of energy and materials commonly used in recent research. It also establishes the amount of carbon emissions generated by mining per unit cubic meter of ore rock as the minimum calculation unit for carbon emissions, which allows for the cost and footprint of carbon emissions in the mining process to become clearer. Then, a gold–copper mine is involved as a case study, and the greenhouse gas emissions were predicted employing its preliminary design. Among all the predicted results, the carbon emissions from air compression and ventilation are larger than others, reaching 22.00 kg CO 2 /m 3 and 10.10 kg CO 2 /m 3 , respectively. By contrast, the carbon emissions of rock drilling, drainage, and backfilling material pumping are 5.87 kg CO 2 /m 3 , 6.80 kg CO 2 /m 3 , and 7.79 kg CO 2 /m 3 , respectively. To validate the proposed model, the calculation results are compared with the actual energy consumption data of the mine. The estimated overall relative error is only 5.08%. The preliminary predictions of carbon emissions and carbon emission costs in mining before mineral investment were realized, thus helping mining companies to reduce their investment risk.

Keywords: mining carbon emissions; metal mines; carbon emission prediction model; cost of carbon emission; carbon emissions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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