Integrating Industrial Ecology Thinking into the Management of Mining Waste

Éléonore Lèbre and Glen Corder
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Éléonore Lèbre: Center for Social Responsibility in Mining, The Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia QLD 4072, Australia
Glen Corder: Center for Social Responsibility in Mining, The Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia QLD 4072, Australia

Resources, 2015, vol. 4, issue 4, 1-22

Abstract: Mining legacies are often dominated by large waste facilities and their associated environmental impacts. The most serious environmental problem associated with mine waste is heavy metals and acid leakage through a phenomenon called acid mine drainage (AMD). Interestingly, the toxicity of this leakage is partly due to the presence of valuable metals in the waste stream as a result of a diversity of factors influencing mining operations. A more preventive and recovery-oriented approach to waste management, integrated into mine planning and operations, could be both economically attractive and environmentally beneficial since it would: mitigate environmental impacts related to mine waste disposal (and consequently reduce the remediation costs); and increase the resource recovery at the mine site level. The authors argue that eco-efficiency and resilience (and the resulting increase in a mine’s lifetime) are both critical—yet overlooked—characteristics of sustainable mining operations. Based on these arguments, this paper proposes a framework to assist with identification of opportunities for improvement and to measure this improvement in terms of its contribution to a mine’s sustainability performance.

Keywords: mining; metals; eco-efficiency; resilience; mine waste; sustainable development; Material Flow Analysis; industrial ecology; sustainable resource management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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