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08.13
environment
S
RK, which now operates around the globe, was
formed in Johannesburg in 1974, with its ini-
tial focus being on geotechnical engineering
and tailings disposal. Since those early days, it has
become a true multi-disciplinary practice with skills
which encompass virtually every aspect of mining,
including the social and environmental aspects of
mining projects and operations. The South African
practice, for example, now has over 60 skilled envi-
ronmental and social professionals and has built up
a high reputation for the quality of its work in the
environmental and social field. Its clients include
not only ‘blue chip’ mining houses but also interna-
tional organisations such as the World Bank and the
IFC and it has a track record of having successfully
completed many Environmental and Social Impact
Assessments (ESIAs) over the past 15 years.
James Lake, an Associate Partner and Principal En-
vironmental Scientist with SRK South Africa, who is
a geochemistry and mine closure specialist, is in no
doubt that green mining is both possible and afford-
able. He acknowledges that mining is a destructive
activity and that an element of environmental dam-
age is inevitable but points out that appropriate plan-
ning, design and tech-
nology can successfully
mitigate impacts. “New
projects can be planned
in such a way that most
impacts can be restricted
to the immediate foot-
print of the mine,” he
says. “Moreover, technol-
ogy is available to miti-
gate wider impacts – for
example, water treatment
to prevent downstream
contamination, liner materials to limit groundwater
contamination, dust control to reduce the dispersion
of dust and obviously emission control at the process-
ing plant to minimise any airborne pollution.”
He stresses that – ideally – green mining measures
should be incorporated into a mine’s design and im-
plemented up front. “Retrospective implementation
can be difficult and costly and can sometimes be re-
sisted by operational management, so it’s important
for sufficient money to be allocated at the develop-
ment stage to allow for the implementation of green
technology,” he notes. “Obviously, where a mine has
been going for many years, there is no alternative but
to take retrospective measures and work of this nature
does in fact form an important part of our workload.”
He also points out that it is essential for mines to
tackle problems as they arise. “Appropriate emergen-
cy procedures to deal with contamination are essen-
tial,” he stresses. “If there is on-going contamination,
even if relatively minor, the cumulative environmen-
tal impact can be significant, thereby having a consid-
erable impact on closure expenditure.”
Lake’s colleague Peter Shepherd, a Partner and
Principal Scientist, has been involved in the field of
hydrology for over 20 years and has undertaken hy-
drological investigations for mines all over Africa. He
says water management is absolutely critical to the
concept of green mining. “One only has to look at the
eMalahleni area where coal mines have had a huge
negative impact on river systems to see what can go
wrong,” he explains. “The key thing to understand is
that mines are big consumers of water – as a rule of
thumb, mines need a minimum of about 250 litres of
water per tonne of material mined. There is no way
around this minimum figure so one has to plan and
‘Green mining’
– is
it really possible?
Sustainable revegetation of a
TSF (Tailings Storage Facil-
ity) side slope.
Dust monitor used to sample dust fallout.
While there’s no question that mining in the past was a dirty business, whose ef-
fects we are still living with today, in recent years the mining industry has made
a concerted effort to clean up its act and improve its public image. The initia-
tives and technologies to make mining more environmentally friendly are loosely
grouped under the term ‘green mining’ and almost all major mining companies
globally have committed themselves to reducing the environmental impact of
their operations. But is ‘green mining’ – the very words, as many observers have
pointed out, seem a contradiction in terms – a realistic goal or is it just a public
relations exercise?
Modern Mining
recently asked some experts from SRK Con-
sulting for their views.
