Environmental Aspects of Phosphate and Potash Mining United ...

The Environmental Approach of the Phosphate Rock and Potash Mining Industry
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Environmental Management Systems
The ISO 14000 Environmental Management system
and the European Union Eco-management and Audit
Scheme (EMAS) standards provide widely recognized
frameworks and guidelines that companies can use to
develop their own environmental management systems.
These are third-party certified, providing a
means by which the company can demonstrate its
commitment to improved environmental performance.
Many phosphate rock and potash mining companies
are looking at the ISO 14000 standards to guide the
development of systems that are specific to their
needs.
Quality management systems are more prevalent than
environmental management systems. Adoption of
these has been assisted by perceived greater benefits in
terms of improved product quality and consistency
and greater recognition in the market place. Even
though not specifically orientated to environmental
performance, systems such as the ISO 9000 Quality
Management series tend to produce environmental
benefits from an improvement in the overall performance
of the operation. In many cases companies have
found such systems to be an excellent foundation
upon which to build an environmental management
system.
Recognition of the growing importance of environmental
management systems is evident in a number of
countries including many developing countries, where
producers understand the competitive advantage of
meeting the increasing demands of consumer markets
such as the European Union and Japan.
Environmental Best Practice Guidelines
Best practice guidelines provide a valuable source of
information to help companies to develop and implement
appropriate systems, practices and technologies.
These are based on the experience of others, increasing
the learning curve and reducing time and cost.
Though the guidelines may have been developed for
other countries or regions and different minerals, the
similarity of the mining processes and their potential
environmental effects means that they are applicable
to many operations.
Environmental Impact Study and Management
System
Industries Chimiques du Sénégal, (ICS) is the owner
of a phosphate rock mine with a yearly production
capacity of 2 million tonnes and phosphoric acid
plants with a yearly capacity of 330,000 tonnes
P 2 O 5 . Two large projects were initiated by ICS in
1996:
Opening the Tobène panel mine at the end of the
Keur Mor FALL panel;
Doubling the phosphoric acid production capacity.
An environmental impact study was carried in
October 1997. The study concerned the existing
and future installations. The main objectives were
to:
Describe how the environment is likely to be
affected by these projects;
Examine the potential impact of the projects on
the environment and provide information on
their nature and the extent;
Describe preventative measures for protection of
the environment;
Evaluate the socio-economic impacts.
The conclusions of the impact study allowed ICS to
establish an Environmental Management System in
the context of ISO 14001.
Source: D. Fam, M. Bocoum, IFA Technical
Conference, New Orleans, USA, October 2000.
Management System Certification
In Jordan, the Jordan Phosphate Mines Company
Ltd. has attained ISO 14000 Environmental
Management System and ISO 9000 Quality
Assurance certification for part of their operation,
soon to be all. The Arab Potash Company Limited
has implemented a certified ISO 9002 Quality
Management system and is in the process of developing
a certified ISO14000 Environmental
Management System for its Dead Sea solar evaporation
operations. Both of the companies
acknowledge the performance improvement that
comes from the implementation of these systems
and see the benefits these systems will offer in
increasingly more demanding consumer markets.