A guide to leading practice sustainable development in mining

An environmental and social impact assessment is conducted, to
enable regulators and other stakeholders to review predicted impacts
and mitigation measures. It must be a transparent process based on
both good science and extensive consultation, and conducted using an
agreed risk management and sustainable development approach.
Company risk management frameworks are defined to identify potentially
‘significant’ risks so control measures can be developed and applied,
and the success of their implementation can be evaluated.
Internal company standards and procedures are applied to ensure
the corporate objectives are clear and provide a minimum standard
of environmental protection for individual sites to attain.
Leading practice guidelines from within Australia and overseas
(such as the International Council on Mining and Metals principles)
provide case studies and frameworks for planning.
Ongoing monitoring programs are established, to assess real time and
historic performance and, together with research programs, enable
continuous improvement by providing information to guide future
adjustments to environmental management and monitoring. Rigorous
review of the data collected by a monitoring program, conducted at
appropriate intervals, is critical to ensure the monitoring program
remains applicable and enables impacts to be measured.
Recognising that every mining project and community is different, research
is conducted to address gaps in knowledge and develop innovative
solutions to problems. Together with the feedback from monitoring, the
information gathered through research linked to leading practice monitoring
principles is a key element of the continuous improvement loop.
Audits are used to evaluate compliance with regulatory requirements,
company standards and/or other adopted systems and procedures.
This helps industry to demonstrate its performance to stakeholders
and encourages continuous improvement. When audits of monitoring
programs identify gaps in knowledge or inadequacies in control
measures, they enable monitoring programs to be improved.
Often, these elements are part of an environmental management system in
compliance with AS/NZS ISO 14001:2004 Environmental management systems—
requirements with guidance for use. An environmental management system
helps the company to achieve leading practice by providing a framework for the
development and regular review of procedures used to assess, mitigate and manage
environmental impacts.
These elements are adapted to monitor and audit the performance of brownfield sites,
depending on the site and its context, including the physical and social aspects, the age
of the mine, key risks/issues and the historical evolution of the site and its ownership.
A GUIDE TO LEADING PRACTICE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN MINING 75