Green Mining – A Holistic Concept for Sustainable and Acceptable Mineral Production

Abstract

Mining has become increasingly difficult for societal and environmental reasons all over the world. There is an increasing competition with other land uses, and water and energy are scarce in many important mining regions. People are not ready to radically reduce the use of mineral-based products, but increasingly oppose mining. The industry faces major challenges to improve its performance and image. The Green Mining concept (GM) was developed as a major tool to make Finland the forerunner in sustainable mining. It promotes material, water, and energy efficiency to reduce the environmental footprint of mineral-based product life cycles. GM allows the recovery of all useful minerals and minimises mining waste. GM aims to ensure the availability of mineral resources for future generations, which requires long-term investment in mineral exploration supported by geoscientific mapping, mineral systems research and the development of exploration techniques. An important goal of GM is to minimise adverse environmental and social impacts in all stages of the operations, and to maximise local benefits. GM helps to organise the operations in such a way that they are safe and meaningful to employees, and harmless for local residents and the environment. After mine closure, GM helps to restore the mining areas to make them safe and preferably to allow other types of land use. The broadbased participation of local residents and other stakeholders is crucial throughout the mining life cycle, from early exploration to mine closure. Societies, governments, and investors should not tolerate unsustainable mining companies in the future. The mining industry has to solve increasing social, ecological and technical problems of the future by applying holistic concepts, such as the Green Mining concept, if they hope to earn the social license to operate.

Building Bridges through Science: Increased Geoscience Engagement with Canada’s Northern Communities

“…Tod ay, the GSC m obilizes science to inform pu blic policy d evelopm ent on issu es associated w ith high social im pact su ch as grou nd w ater, G clim ate change, natu ral d isasters, and m ineral and energy su pply (Bobrow sky et al, 2017). This shift, increasingly relevant in all aspects of the GSC's w ork, is also consistent w ith the grow ing international trend to apply geoethical id eas, principles, and practices to scientific research abou t the earth and its m ineral resou rces and land scapes, as w ell as t o m ining and su stainable d evelop m ent (Gill and Bu llou gh, 2017;N ickless, 2017;N u rm i, 2017).…”

Development of Sustainable Test Sites for Mineral Exploration and Knowledge Spillover for Industry

“…Availability of minerals today and in the future, however, starts in the exploration phase. Here mineral systems research, as well as exploration methods development, form the foundation of all value creation in the minerals sector [32]. Potential interventions in mineral exploration go beyond mitigating the impact of mining but towards building new links between social engagement and environmental practices for inclusive development solutions [19,33].…”

Ethics to Intersect Civic Participation and Formal Guidance

“…Under the circumstances applicable to seabed mining, approaches borrowed from terrestrial mining practices would practice civic participation, refer to formal guidance (mining codes), and consider the lifetime of the mine from exploration through its operation to its closure [66]. Such practices treat the societal contexts of mining by advocating a participatory approach to regulation, governance and operational decision-making [67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75].…”