Sustainable water management and improved corporate reporting in mining

Northey, Stephen; Mudd, Gavin Mark; Werner, Tim T.; Haque, Nawshad; Yellishetty, Mohan

doi:10.1016/j.wri.2018.100104

Cited by 63 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 34 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…We relied on the raw water use data from the sustainability report of the mining company. 2019;2016) [14,16,46] discussed the prospects and challenges of sustainability reporting to perform a water footprint. The present reporting framework could be revised by providing more detailed sectoral water use data other than reporting only the total water abstraction, water use, and discharge.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is limited understanding regarding the variability and magnitude of water resource use between mining regions, despite the importance of mining industries to global economies. This limitation makes it challenging to define what is an acceptable or appropriate level of water resource consumption for any mining entity [14]. Although the situation is changing as there is growing interest in both civil society and the business communities about sustainable water use, the lack of transparency of companies to report the direct and indirect water use is a major drawback that needs proper attention [15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Accounting for Water Footprint of an Open-Pit Copper Mine

Islam

Murakami

2020

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Water is a crucial input for any production system, and mining is no exception. A huge amount of water is being used in the various phases of mining activities. In the coming decades, the competition in using a sufficient amount of fresh water will become a major hurdle for the mining industry. Water footprint (WF), an accounting framework for tracking the amount of water used to produce a unit of product, can be useful to the mining companies by quantifying their water resource appropriation and identifying ways to reduce the consumption. In this study, we accounted for the green, blue, and grey water footprint of an open-pit copper mine that is located in Laos. The input–output water flows of the mine are also developed from the inventory of water use. Moreover, we have calculated the uncertainty in the water footprint accounting to check the robustness of the findings. According to the results, the green, blue, and grey WF of the studied mine are 52.04, 988.83, and 69.78 m3/tonne of copper concentrate, respectively. After the installation of a passive effluent treatment system in 2013, the calculated grey WF of the mine was 13.64 m3/tonne, a fivefold decrease than before. The uncertainty in the footprint ranges between 8% to 11% which shows the robustness of the analysis. Although green WF is ignored by most studies, we suggest incorporating it into the accounting. The responsible share of a supply-chain WF to the total blue WF is about 98%, which is quite huge. Water embedded in the hydroelectricity is mainly responsible for such a huge amount of blue WF. Evidently, the use of electricity from hydropower results in the consumption of a large amount of water in exchange for a reduction in carbon emissions. Thus, the article attempts to demonstrate the escalating importance of WF accounting of this mine.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accounting for Water Footprint of an Open-Pit Copper Mine

Islam

Murakami

2020

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Strong local regulations control the extraction of freshwater and the impact of mining operations (footprint indicators). Mineral processing operations must adapt their production processes based on the nature of the ores, resulting in moderate water consumption and general sustainability [33][34][35].…”

Section: Water Scarcitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Leaching of Oxide Copper Ores by Addition of Weak Acid from Copper Smelters

Araya

Toro

Castillo

et al. 2020

Metals

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this study, weak acid in the curing and leaching stages of copper ore was incorporated, and we analyzed its effect on the dissolution of copper and final impurities. The weak acid corresponds to a wastewater effluent from sulfuric acid plants produced in the gas treatment of copper smelting processes. This effluent is basically water with high acidity (pH-value low at 1), which contains several toxic elements and some valuable metals. The results indicated that there is no positive or negative effect on the incorporation of the weak acid in the curing stage, while the case of the leaching stage is favored. Toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) and synthetic precipitation leaching procedure (SPLP) toxicity tests were performed on the solid leaching residues, determining that they accomplish the stability ranges of the impurities (Pb, Cd, Hg, Cr, Ba, Se, As, and Ag).

show abstract

“…Finally, similar to other industries, larger companies in the food and beverage industry are more likely to address sustainability issues, such as the SDGs (Rosati & Faria, 2019), and to disclose data about their performance and activities concerning water (Stray & Ballantine, 2000). Northey, Mudd, Werner, Haque, and Yellishetty (2019), however, recommend better reporting on processing methods and local conditions though the quality of water reporting increased over the last years. Furthermore, Egan (2015) found only weak economic and regulatory drivers to improve water management and water reporting.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Corporate social responsibility, water management, and financial performance in the food and beverage industry

Weber

Saunders-Hogberg

2020

Corp Soc Responsibility Env

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Water management is an important issue for the food and beverage sector. Global media reports about conflicts between industries and stakeholders about water resources that hurt the food and beverage industry. This study addresses the gap in the knowledge about the connection between water management performance and the financial performance of companies in the food and beverage industry that exists because of a lack of empirical studies in the field of corporate water management and financial performance. Using structural equation modeling to analyze secondary corporate social performance data from KLD‐MSCI, secondary financial data from Compustat, and primary water management data, the results suggest that corporate social performance has a positive impact on water management performance and that water management performance influences the financial performance of the firms in the sample positively. We conclude that an inside‐out approach of corporate social responsibility addressing material issues, such as water in the food and beverage industry, helps to increase the financial performance in this industry. Academically, we contribute to the knowledge about the connection between water management and financial performance in the food and beverage industry. Furthermore, our results can be used by policymakers to implement standardized water indicators for the food and beverage industry. Finally, businesses can use the results of the study to improve their water‐related environmental performance.

show abstract

Sustainable water management and improved corporate reporting in mining

Cited by 63 publications

References 34 publications

Accounting for Water Footprint of an Open-Pit Copper Mine

Accounting for Water Footprint of an Open-Pit Copper Mine

Leaching of Oxide Copper Ores by Addition of Weak Acid from Copper Smelters

Corporate social responsibility, water management, and financial performance in the food and beverage industry

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About