Environmental Aspects of Phosphate and Potash Mining United ...

Emerging Environmental Issues and Trends
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Monitoring and incident reporting;
Corporate environmental reporting;
Integrated pollution prevention and control;
Voluntary initiatives;
Cleaner production.
This publication draws attention to the importance of
preventative, rather than remedial action in order to
reduce the potentially environmental impacts of company
activities. The publication also argues that a
comprehensive environmental management system
can be of intrinsic value to the company. New
approaches are likely to be developed in the future.
The present publication has explored a variety of
approaches and techniques being used by the fertilizer
raw material mining industry in response to environmental
issues. In many instances, new technologies
and practices have been developed or applied to
resolve specific problems. In others, the implementation
of new management systems has improved
environmental performance - in many cases with economic
benefit - through a better understanding of the
environmental causes and effects.
Companies are starting to perceive marketing and
even economic advantages from the implementation
of such systems. This trend is expected to continue as
consumer awareness and demands for improved
industry performance grow and government legislation
evolve to reflect this. Markets are becoming more
discriminating; environmental and “ethical” investment
funds have been established; and some financial
institutions are beginning to examine a company's
environmental performance when making loan
assessments.
Many complex issues face the mining industry and
these are best tackled using a multidisciplinary
approach. Achieving a balance between the environmental,
economic, and social needs of society is
important if development is to be sustainable. This is
most effective when a long-term perspective is adopted.
The life-cycle approach used to structure this
publication demonstrates one method of examining
the impact of companies' activities and products as a
whole. A variety of strategies and tools, such as cleaner
production, life cycle analysis and industrial
ecology have been developed to assist management for
this purpose.
The mining life-cycle approach highlights the importance
of planning, environmental management and
rehabilitation from the outset and throughout the life
of the mine. This fosters a preventative approach,
allowing:
Identification of potentially adverse environmental
effects;
Implementation of plans, systems, procedures and
practices to avoid or mitigate potentially adverse
impact;
Detection of variance from plans by monitoring
environmental performance.
Communication and dissemination of information
within and between companies through means such
as newsletters, workshops and conferences are important
to continually improve environmental
performance.
A particular characteristic of the mining industry is
the need to anticipate when the economic ore reserve
will be depleted and the operation will close. The site
must be left in a safe and stable form, allowing it to be
returned to the pool of land available for society. The
closure and rehabilitation of sites needs to be planned
from the outset, not left for future generations. Many
governments now require, or are examining, financial
provisions for mine closure to be set aside by companies
during its operations to avoid environmental
liabilities being handed over to the community.
How can industry associations facilitate improved
performance Encouragement and support from
industry associations and companies can assist the fertilizer
mining industry in its response to future
challenges.
They can:
Provide leadership;
Assemble and communicate information on good
practices, new developments and trends that may
affect the industry, through means such as conferences,
workshops, and publications;
Develop guidelines on good practices;
Encourage the adoption of voluntary codes to foster
continued improvement.