Environmental management and life cycle approaches in the Mexican mining industry

Suppen, Nydia; Carranza, Mario E.; Huerta, Mario Carrillo; Hernández, Mario Alberto

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2004.12.020

Cited by 52 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…There are several studies regarding the extensive interest on this topic which explore strategies of companies on sustainable issues (Sinding, 1999;Cowell et al, 1999;Warhurst and Noronha, 2000;Hilson and Murck, 2000;Warhurst, 2001;Hilson and Nayee, 2002;Newbold, 2006;Suppen et al, 2006;Van Zyl, 2007;Enríquez and Drummond, 2007;Mudd, 2010;Fonseca, 2010 and2011;Dutta et al, 2012;Hassan and Ibrahim, 2012).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental sustainability in the mining sector: evidence from Catalan companies

Sánchez

Pera

Freijó

2014

Journal of Cleaner Production

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This paper examines the adoption of environmental practices in small and medium sized companies in the surface mining industry in Catalonia (Spain). To fulfill this aim, a survey of 41 items concerning environmental management systems and environmentally sustainable practices has been conducted. Results show that companies have committed themselves to environmental and sustainable issues. The majority of companies claim to understand the effects of their activities on the environment and they care for responsible access and management of natural resources. Restoration plans and the annual waste declaration are mandatory in Catalonia, and rational resources exploitation practices have been adopted by a high percentage of mines. Finally, some examples of good environmentally sustainable practices are introduced.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental sustainability in the mining sector: evidence from Catalan companies

Sánchez

Pera

Freijó

2014

Journal of Cleaner Production

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“…In spite of the low application of life cycle thinking to decision making in the mining industry, some examples of mining LCA studies can be found in the literature (Awuah-Offei et al 2008a, b;Bovea et al 2007;Durucan et al 2006;Mangena and Brent 2006;Spitzley and Tolle 2004;Suppen et al 2006). The goals of these LCAs vary and include estimating land-use equivalency factors (Spitzley and Tolle 2004), identifying high impact processes during mining, treating and marketing of red clay (Bovea et al 2007), evaluating the life cycle environmental impacts of different grades of coal mined with different mining methods (Mangena and Brent 2006), and life cycle environmental impact assessment of mine haulage options in surface mines (Awuah-Offei et al 2008a).…”

Section: Current Lca Applications In Miningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The boundaries of the product systems used in these studies also vary. Suppen et al (2006) recognize the temporal nature of mining activities from exploration to decommissioning as proposed by van Zyl (2005). On the contrary, others ignore the temporal aspects, often providing little or no justification (Bovea et al 2007;Durucan et al 2006;Mangena and Brent 2006).…”

Section: Current Lca Applications In Miningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Like all other life cycle inventories (LCIs), the mining LCIs draw their data from varied sources including company websites and publicly available data (Spitzley and Tolle 2004), detailed surveys and data collection at mine sites (Durucan et al 2006), and industry-wide statistics and government reports (Mangena and Brent 2006;Suppen et al 2006). Based on their developed framework for mining LCA and the corresponding product system (Fig.…”

Section: Current Lca Applications In Miningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1 developed by Durucan et al (2006) can be a basis for such a framework. However, it is possible to develop the products and emissions of these unit processes without the level of detail they adopted and the attendant problems: (1) how to deal with the many concurrent sub-activities, (2) insufficient data for inputs and impacts for each subactivity, and (3) difficulty calculating and assigning inputs Bovea et al (2007) 1 t of clay as produced and sold Red clay Durucan et al (2006) 1,250 t/day of bauxite Bauxite Spitzley and Tolle (2004) 1 t of refined metal Gold, aluminum, and copper Suppen et al (2006) 1 t of concentrated mineral Base metals Mangena and Brent (2006) 1 t of delivered coal product Coal and impacts to each sub-activity. To avoid these problems, each unit process in Fig.…”

Section: Mining Specific Lca Modeling Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Application of life cycle assessment in the mining industry

Awuah–Offei

Adekpedjou

2010

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Background, aim, and scope In spite of the increasing application of life cycle assessment (LCA) for engineering evaluation of systems and products, the application of LCA in the mining industry is limited. For example, a search in the Engineering Compendex database using the keywords "life cycle assessment" results in 2,257 results, but only 19 are related to the mining industry. Also, mining companies are increasingly adopting ISO 14001 certified environmental management systems (EMSs). A key requirement of ISO certified EMSs is continual improvement, which can be better managed with life cycle thinking. This paper presents a review of the current application of LCA in the mining industry. It discusses the current application, the issues, and challenges and makes relevant recommendations for new research to improve the current situation. Main features The paper reviews the major published articles in the literature pertaining to LCA methodology as applied in the mining industry. The challenges associated with LCA applications in mining are discussed next. Finally, the authors present recommended research areas to increase the application of LCA in the mining industry. Results The literature review shows a limited number of published mining LCA studies. The paper also shows the variation in functional unit definition for mining LCA studies. The challenges and research needed to address the problems are highlighted in the discussions. Discussion The limited number of mining LCAs may be due to the lack of life cycle thinking in the industry. The paper, however, highlights the major contributions in the literature to LCA practice in the mining industry. This paper discusses the lack of LCA awareness and tools for mining LCAs, issues relating to functional unit and scoping of mining product systems, defining adequate and appropriate impact categories, and challenges with uncertainty and sensitivity analysis. The authors recommend that future research focus on the development of a mining-specific LCA framework, data uncertainty characterization, and software development to increase the application of LCA in mining. Conclusions LCA presents beneficial insights to the mining industry as it seeks to develop world-class EMSs and environmentally sustainable projects. However, to take full advantage of this technique, further research is necessary to improve the level of LCA application in mining. Major challenges have been identified, and recommended research areas have been proposed to improve the situation. The paper outlines the benefits of increased application of LCA in the mining industry to LCA databases and all practitioners. Recommendations and perspectives It is recommended that additional research be undertaken through industry-academia partnerships to develop a more rigorous mining-specific LCA framework. Such a framework should allow for sensitivity and uncertainty analysis while allowing for suitable data collection that still covers the temporal and spatial dimensions of mining. Research should also be carr...

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Purification techniques for the recovery of valuable compounds from acid mine drainage and cyanide tailings: application of green engineering principles

García

Häyrynen

Landaburu-Aguirre

et al. 2014

J of Chemical Tech & Biotech

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The metal mining of certain minerals is associated with the generation of acid mine drainage waters and effluents containing cyanides that can have long-term negative impacts on waterways and biodiversity. Obtaining valuable components from those effluents would improve the resource efficiency and the environmental performance of mining. This paper reviews the main separation processes cited in literature for the purification of real acid mine drainage waters and cyanide tailings, and for the recovery of heavy metals and cyanides from those effluents. The processes used are adsorption and membrane technology to obtain valuable compounds from acid mine drainage waters and ion-exchange, acidification-volatilization-reneutralization, sulphidization-acidification-recycling-thickening and membrane technology from cyanide tailings. Further, the use of the 12 green engineering principles for improving the environmental performance of the purification techniques is debated. This work indicates that the energy and chemical consumption and the formation of waste are the main environmental disadvantages of the purification and recovery techniques. This paper concludes that the limitations may be overcome by improving the efficiency of the processes and by using renewable energy and material. The benefits of conducting the purification and recovery techniques utilizing hybrid processes are also pointed out.

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Environmental management and life cycle approaches in the Mexican mining industry

Cited by 52 publications

References 8 publications

Environmental sustainability in the mining sector: evidence from Catalan companies

Environmental sustainability in the mining sector: evidence from Catalan companies

Application of life cycle assessment in the mining industry

Purification techniques for the recovery of valuable compounds from acid mine drainage and cyanide tailings: application of green engineering principles

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