Sustainable Open Pit Mining and Technical Systems: Concept, Principles, and Indicators

Abstract

Sustainability of the open pit mining and technical system (MTS) is one of its key goals in the changing conditions of the external and internal environment. All MTS’s subsystems must function in concert to achieve this goal. The structure of the MTS is formed by many subsystems and elements, which are evaluated by a significant number of indicators. A comprehensive assessment of the MTS for all possible indicators is a complex and time-consuming task. However, each subsystem and element of the MTS has a different effect on the sustainability of this system. The MTS’s parameters change significantly during transition periods, for example, at a new stage of open-pit mining or when switching to an open-underground method of developing mineral deposits. The MTS’s sustainability declines during the transition periods. Changes in the parameters of technological processes during these periods can have a negative impact on the state of the economic and social subsystems of mining enterprises, as well as on the environment. Ensuring the sustainability of an MTS during transition periods requires the development of new approaches and principles for managing the work of mining enterprises, based on the alignment of economic goals, with goals in the field of ecology and social development. The study substantiates the key role of one of the MTS subsystems—the opening-up of an opencast system (OOS). It is shown that this system has a decisive influence on sustainable functioning and development. The systematization of the principles of sustainable functioning and development of mining enterprises and its systems has been carried out. Four groups of principles are distinguished: system-wide principles of management, principles of development of mining enterprises, principles of MTS development, and principles of the MTS’s subsystem development. The proposed system of principles is based on the idea of a sequential transformation of the subsystems at all stages of design and operation. A feature of the proposal system of principles is the consideration of economic, social, and environmental aspects to ensure the specified parameters for the sustainable functioning and development of mining enterprises. The results of the analysis of the factors of the external and internal environment of the MTS are presented. The parameters and indicators for assessing the sustainability of OOS and MTSs were selected and substantiated. The justified parameters and indicators were ranked using the fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The results of the assessment showed a high convergence of expert opinions on a group of economic parameters, which were rather high in technical and technological parameters. However, there is a divergence of expert opinions on social and environmental parameters. As a result of the study, it was concluded that the current management decisions are aimed at ensuring the economic and technological sustainability of MTS functioning, while achieving the goals of sustainable development of this system is not ensured. The methodology developed and presented in the study can be used to assess the sustainability of the functioning and development of MTSs.

Combined Method of Coal Mining in the Opening of Shallow Layers as a Direction of Innovative Development of Geotechnology

“…The study of the advantages and disadvantages of using underground and open-pit coal mining technologies made it possible to conclude that their integrated application, taking into account the noted advantages, can serve as a basis for the development of a combined method of field development. Taking into account the accumulated domestic and foreign experience of the open-underground system for the development of coal deposits allows us to obtain the following effects [9][10][11][12][13][14]: combine underground and open-pit mining operations within the mining system «cut -mine site»; to balance the duration of mining and the speed of mining operations in open and underground mining; to ensure the efficiency of coal mining at modular mine sites; to combine a significant part of the components of the production infrastructure: power lines, substations, transport routes, etc. ; to increase the life of the mining enterprise.…”

The Potential Re-Use of Saudi Mine Tailings in Mine Backfill: A Path towards Sustainable Mining in Saudi Arabia

“…In the minerals industry, sustainability can be approached from two perspectives, with the second building upon the first. One is focused on sustainable resource use and management during operations (i.e., sustainable functioning as described by [22]), and the other is focused on minimizing the social and environmental impacts of the mining project during and after operations (i.e., sustainable development as described by [22,23]). These concepts have been more broadly developed in industries that use renewable resources (e.g., the fashion industry [24]).…”

“…Furthermore, the optimum backfill design was determined in terms of the effect of the water-to-binder ratio on UCS. A detailed techno-economic assessment (e.g., [22]) is beyond the scope of this paper. Rather, the goal is to provide empirical data and a modeling approach to quantify one of many possible techniques to contribute to building a sustainability framework within the mining sector.…”

“…Site-specific quantitative and qualitative (expert opinion) techno-economic assessments addressing technical, technological, economic, social, and environmental factors (per [22]) should be conducted for all stages of new and existing mine operations prior to the implementation of mine backfilling or other techniques.…”

Model of Raw Material Exploitation for the Support of Sustainable Development

“…It can also be used for the evaluation of the socioeconomic structure of a province or municipality [32], rural development [33], coal mine sustainable development [34], regional level sustainability [35]. Other uses are for the evaluation of sustainable open pit mining and technical systems [36], sustainable product design in the context of green consumer behavior [37], stone crushing industries [38], critical success factors in disaster management [39], sustainable development, including human, economic, social, industrial, cultural, as well as health, safety, environmental, and energy factors [40], of selecting sustainable supplier countries for steel industry [41], sustainable production and consumption challenges [42], and sustainable production and consumption barriers and solutions [43]. It was also successfully used for the evaluation of lecturer research productivity [44], green supply chain management practices [45], the transformation efficiency of resource-based coastal cities [46], evaluation of the combined impact of coal mining on land use and the environment [47], sustainable exploitation of a coal deposit [48], the probability of a social conflict due to a mining project [49], cleaner mining [50], supply chain complexity drivers [51], ecology reclamation of mining subsided zones [52], sustainable development of mine water resources [53], brownfield and greenfield industrial parks investment projects [54], etc.…”