Sustainable development principles for the disposal of mining and mineral processing wastes

Franks, Daniel M., Boger, David V., Côte, Claire M. and Mulligan, David R. (2011) Sustainable development principles for the disposal of mining and mineral processing wastes. Resources policy, 36 2: 114-122.


Author Franks, Daniel M.
Boger, David V.
Côte, Claire M.
Mulligan, David R.
Title Sustainable development principles for the disposal of mining and mineral processing wastes
Journal name Resources policy  (ERA 2012 Listed)    (ERA 2010 Rank B)   Check publisher's open access policy
Publication date 2011
Sub-type Article
DOI 10.1016/j.resourpol.2010.12.001
Volume number 36
Issue number 2
ISSN 0301-4207; 1873-7641
Start page 114
End page 122
Total pages 9
Place of publication East Park, Kidlington, Oxford, U.K.
Publisher Pergamon
Collection year 2012
Language eng
Formatted abstract This paper examines the minerals industry's response to sustainable development in the area of waste disposal and argues that leadership and guidance are still needed to forge collective agreement on norms and standards of practise. To encourage further debate, the paper develops a set of sustainable development principles for the disposal of mining and mineral processing wastes, and discusses the implications for current and future practise. In practise, the principles can guide waste disposal decisions through the consideration of what risk and magnitude, in any given local context, a particular management solution poses to their application. The sustainability challenge in the management of tailings and waste rock is to dispose of material, such that it is inert or, if not, stable and contained, to minimise water and energy inputs and the surface footprint of wastes and to move toward finding alternate uses. Future trends in mining and processing may compound the challenges of waste management, as lower ore grades increase the ratio of waste produced for a given unit of resource, and emphasise the urgency and need for the industry to adopt new approaches. New technologies and innovations, such as thickened tailings, dry stacking and paste backfill, have greatly increased the waste disposal methods available to meet the future challenges to sustainable development.
Keyword Sustainable development
Tailings
Waste management
Policy
Mining
Q-Index Code C1
Q-Index Status Confirmed Code
Institutional Status UQ

 
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Created: Fri, 17 Dec 2010, 09:51:39 EST by Dr Daniel Franks on behalf of Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining