Environmental impact of mining and beneficiation of copper sulphate mine based on life cycle assessment

Abstract

China is a major producer of copper concentrate as its smelting capacity continues to expand dramatically. The present study analyzes the life cycle environmental impact of copper concentrate production, along with selection of a typical copper sulphate mine in China. Life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted using SimaPro with ReCiPe 2016 method. The midpoint and endpoint results were performed with uncertainty information based on Monte Carlo calculation. Normalization of midpoint results revealed that impact from the marine ecotoxicity category was the largest contributor to the total environmental impact, followed by freshwater ecotoxicity, human carcinogenic toxicity, human non-carcinogenic and terrestrial ecotoxicity. The mining activity, backfilling activity and electricity generation were proved to be the dominant factors. In addition, main processes and substances to the identified key categories were also classified. Specifically, the cement production in the backfilling process, blasting activity, on-site emission and electricity generation were regarded as the critical processes. Copper to air and zinc emission to water were considered as the critical substances. The sensitivity analysis indicated that controlling on-site emissions and reducing pollution from cement production were the most effective measure to solve the environmental problems caused by the concentrate production process. Finally, the corresponding technical and management measures were proposed to facilitate the development of cleaner metal industry.