Chile: On the Road to Global Sustainable Mining

Proceedings, 2020

Mexico is identified in the world as a nation that produces a large amount of minerals thatcontribute to economic mobility. However, as a consequence of the mining activity, negativeassumptions have been generated regarding the impact caused to the environment, since by nature,this industry tends to be aggressive in its processes. Therefore, it is considered a research study thatoffers a proposal for a sustainable model that is based on elements such as: literary foundations,sustainable universal principles and legislative parameters; and that, in addition, is supported bythe best environmental practices, which lead to minimization or eradication of impacts or risks ofenvironmental impact. The objective of this document is to describe the validation of the sustainablemodel for the mining-metallurgical industry in Mexico, through the design of qualitative researchthat is based on the integrated multiple case study method. Its scope is limited to the presentationof validation and othe...

World Sustainability Series

Journal of Cleaner Production, 2018

In the Global Mining Initiative, the mining industry came together to understand the industry's role in the transition to sustainable development and to ensure its long-term contribution to sustainable development. The industry has since then come a long way and improved its sustainable development performance in many areas. But how far has the industry been considering environmental ("strong") sustainability in its approach? And how does this compare to companies in other sectors and leading organizations such as the United Nations, World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the Global Reporting Initiative? This paper presents results from a literature review, looking at how far the mining industry has considered environmental sustainability in its approach. It explores, if the current efforts of the largest mining companies are aligned with the efforts of companies from other industry sectors, as well as the position of leading organizations. We conclude that the mining industry is not setting on the wrong sustainability paradigm at this stage, but is at risk of falling behind societal expectations on climate change and the leaders from other industries on natural capital considerations. The industry can improve by considering the Paris Agreement in its approach to climate change, considering natural capital as an industry, e.g. through working with the Natural Capital Coalition and more broadly by pro-actively thinking about what the consequences of "strong sustainability" would mean for their business models.

Resources Policy, 2000

This paper examines sustainable development in the corporate mining context, and provides some guidelines for mining companies seeking to operate more sustainably. There is now a burgeoning literature that examines sustainable development in the context of minerals and mining, most of which is concerned with sustainability at global and national scales. What is often challenging to ascertain, however, from these numerous perspectives on sustainable mineral extraction, minerals and metals recycling, environmental management, and social performance, is how sustainable development applies to mining companies themselves, and what steps a mine must take in order to improve the sustainability of operations. Since mining processes have the potential to impact a diverse group of environmental entities, and are of interest to a wide range of stakeholder groups, there is ample opportunity for the industry to operate more sustainably. Specifically, with improved planning, implementation of sound environmental management tools and cleaner technologies, extended social responsibility to stakeholder groups, the formation of sustainability partnerships, and improved training, a mine can improve performance in both the environmental and socioeconomic arenas, and thus contribute enormously to sustainable development at the mine level.

The mining industry contributes significantly to the economic growth of the country however frequent occurrences of collapsed pits, less regard for the disposal of waste into river bodies, poor service conditions to staff of small- scale mining companies and poor corporate social responsibility to mining communities have raised a lot of international concerns. These challenges can be highly minimized when the mining industry shifts from unsustainable patterns of operations. The high cost of sustainable operations and many other challenges are key de-motivational challenges to the adoption of sustainable practices.The study revealed that management and staff of the industry have little knowledge in sustainable mining practices whilst others perceive a low senior management support. The researchers found a positive effect of the challenges on their inability to practice sustainability and recommend a periodic rigorous training for all staff and management of all small scale mining companies and also recommend that the Minerals and Mining Act and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Act are implemented to the later.

Rudarsko-geološko-naftni zbornik

A comprehensive systemic approach is needed to make effective decisions for global sustainability. The system’s points of view introduced sustainable development (S.D.) and sustainability in prior years. Sustainable development is expressed as a desire followed by humanity to live in a better condition considering all the limits that nature could have. Social, environmental, and economic responsibilities are the wide-ranging developmental characteristics that form sustainability. In this paper, with the help of search engines like Scopus and Web of Science, several documents related to environmental sustainability in the mining industry were studied. The principal investigated problems were tailings dam failure, forestland use in mining operations, social and environmental issues in crushed stone mining industries, landfill mining challenges, climatic problems, economic problems, and fatalities in artisanal and small-scale mines. Also, a table was designed to categorise these proble...

2019

Up until the late 1990s, the mining industry as a whole has been scrutinised for being unsuitable. In response to heavy criticism, nowadays several mining companies has adopted sustainable development principles, namely the ICMM sustainable development Framework. The adoption of this framework led to mining companies adapting their sustainability strategies and initiatives to best fit the framework. This also suggest that mining companies can help trigger local economic development. This thesis examines how a mining company has used the principles under the framework in their initiatives to contribute to sustainable economic development. The research undergoes a single case study analysis focusing on Gold Fields. This work, by using the local economic development theory confirms that mining plays and contributes in an important way to local economies. The main argument this thesis bring is that mining companies can indeed help to contribute to local economic growth, however their po...

Revue De Metallurgie-cahiers D Informations Techniques, 2020

Sustainable development goals (SDGs) adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 provide an opportunity for the metallurgical and mining industry to create value for both their business and society. The aim of the paper is to analyze the SDGs preferences in the metallurgical and mining industry and identify those SDGs that companies from that industry promised to follow. The multi-criteria decision-making method PROMETHEE and the GAIA plane were used as the methodological base for analysis of input data from United Nations Global Compact database. The results show main differences in declared SDGs preferences among Europe, America, Asia, and Africa.

Ingeniería e Investigación, 2021

The objective of this research was to identify the criteria for the selection of sustainable suppliers in the supply chain of copper mining located in the Antofagasta region in Chile, through the information obtained in the application of a survey managers mining companies in 2018. The research results show that mining companies use economic, environmental and social criteria in the selection of sustainable suppliers, which are consistent with the research carried out by Dickson (1966) and Zimmer, Frohling and Schultmann ( 2016). However, the differentiation that mining companies make in the evaluation of criteria when it comes to suppliers of goods or service providers stands out as an important finding. In the case of suppliers of goods, economic criteria are valued more preferably, such as: quality, delivery on time, price, historical performance and previous sales. On the other hand, when it comes to service providers, environmental and social criteria, such as: occupational he...

Resources Policy

Environmental stewardship is the keystone to sustainability in mining and industry. While environmental compliance appears to be costly at first sight, it actually gives a mining company a competitive edge. Several pieces of legislation have been enacted as a means to deal with impacts of mining on the environment and hence provide an enabling environment for sustainable development (SD). The industry has adopted the principles of environmentally responsible mining, in line with the recommendations of international bodies like the International Organization for Standards (ISO), The Equator Principles and International Finance Corporation (IFC). This paper evaluates the sustainability of the South African mining industry in the light of the National Planning Commission (NPC)'s overview that 'South Africa's growth path is highly resource-intensive and hence unsustainable.' Arguments are presented to refute this viewpoint and additional impacts of mining on the environment, not mentioned by the NPC, are also discussed together with the measures that the mining industry has taken to resolve such impacts. Although the mining industry has instituted emergency preparedness measures, environmental incidents do occur, but these isolated incidents do not provide evidence that mining is unsustainable. Such incidents are a feature of all sectors of the economy. The author advocates the establishment of a SD legal framework through consultative discussions with interested and affected parties to create an environment conducive for legal compliance, which would include SD indicators to enable the Department of Minerals and Resources to monitor company compliance and identify defaulting companies.