The Industrial Green Game Implications for Environmental Design and Management (1997) / Chapter Skim
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Environmental Strategies in the Mining Industry: One Company Experience
Environmental Strategies in the Mining Industry: One Company Experience
Pages 165-182
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From page 165... ...
GENERAL PRINCIPLES Most states have comprehensive environmental regulations for the mining industry. Federal regulations aimed directly at the mining industry have not yet been put into place, but broad-based statutes such as the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, National Environmental Policy Act, and numerous others apply to mining activities.
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From page 166... ...
Kennecott is best known for its Bingham Canyon copper mine near Salt Lake City, which generates one-sixth of the total U.S. copper production.
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From page 167... ...
Operations include the Bingham Canyon Mine, the Copperton and North Concentrators, the Magna Tailings Impoundment, the Garfield Smelter and Refinery, the Utah Power Plant, and miscellaneous support facilities (Figure 1)
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From page 168... ...
Oquirrh mts. y4 Site hwa Hig Salt Lake City Copperton I-15 Project Site UTAH Bingham Canyon Mine FIGURE 1 Kennecott Utah Copper operating facilities.
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From page 169... ...
Along with several other improvements, this program represented an additional investment of over $200 million. The modernization of the Bingham Canyon Mine allows KUC to produce nearly 152,000 tons of ore per day.
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From page 170... ...
The smelter modernization program also includes plans to segregate storm water from process waters, reducing water management problems and once again allowing the natural storm flows from drainages above the smelter to enter the Great Salt Lake. HISTORIC WASTE SITE CLEANUP The KUC property has a long history of mining activities dating to the 1860s, when the first lead, zinc, silver, and gold mining began in Bingham Canyon.
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From page 171... ...
The relocation and reclamation activities have been married with a demonstration project examining approaches to final reclamation of waste-rock disposal areas. The Large Bingham Creek Reservoir has been divided into two major segments -- zone 1 and zone 2 -- by construction of an intermediate dike.
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From page 172... ...
The cost of the improvements to the leach-water collection system will exceed $28 million. Major cleanup projects are also under way in the Bingham Creek drainage downstream from the mouth of Bingham Canyon.
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From page 173... ...
The waste-rock was transported to the Bingham Canyon Mine waste rock disposal areas (behind the leach-water collection system)
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From page 174... ...
MINERAL EXPLORATION AND MINE DEVELOPMENT Before a mineral deposit can be mined, it must be discovered and its economic and technical viability demonstrated, this is the exploration stage. The environmental disruption caused by exploration tends to be localized and minor.
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From page 175... ...
The second type, applicable on those lands available for mineral activities, consists of environmental rules governing permits, environmental impact assessments, and other preproduction activities and approvals that are necessary to proceed from exploration to mine development and mining -- in short, the process of environmental compliance prior to mining. Land-use rules are important because, before mining companies can undertake mineral exploration and development, they need access to prospective mineralized lands.
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From page 176... ...
Mining companies typically are required to obtain environmental permits signifying government approval of various aspects of their mine plans, including those for reclamation, waste disposal, sewage treatment, drinking water, and construction of dams and other impoundments. Companies also often have to carry out detailed assessments of the environmental impacts of proposed mineral development, which in turn are used by governments in deciding whether to permit mine development at all.
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From page 177... ...
indicate that mining activities, apparently in this case including oil and gas production and coal mining, account for about three-quarters of the solid wastes generated annually in Canada, one-third in the United States, one-tenth in the European Community, and one-twentieth in Japan. The substantial differences reflect differences in the size of the extractive industries relative to the total economies in these countries.
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From page 178... ...
Acid mine drainage can contaminate drinking water and affect aquatic and plant life if it gets into surface or ground waters. The nature and extent of actual environmental damage caused by solid mine wastes and, in turn, acid mine drainage vary enormously from case to case, depending on several factors.
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From page 179... ...
Moreover, incremental improvements are to be encouraged, both in beneficiation techniques to increase rates of metal recovery and in mining techniques to reduce the amount of overburden and waste rock extracted along with metallic ores. Second, the amount of solid waste generated during mining and beneficiation is not a good indicator of the actual amount of environmental damage caused by these activities.
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From page 180... ...
With a reclamation bond, mining companies put money into an escrow account or in some other way set aside money as a guarantee that they will perform the required reclamation work. The only way for a company to get the money back is to perform the required work.
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From page 181... ...
1992. Managing Industrial Solid Wastes from Manufacturing, Mining, Oil and Gas Production, and Utility Coat Combusion: Background Paper.
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