Mining waste management is very important since the mining industry is the largest producer of waste in the world. It produces around 70 billion tons of waste annually. Mineral deposits without a viable disposal option aren’t viable mine. Changes in regulations and technological advances have resulted in changes in the management of waste in mines over the past decades.
The whole world is concerned about the management of mine waste. For example, the state of California has thousands of mine sites that were abandoned. Waste has a significant impact on aquatic life. Metaling waste contributes greatly to the deposition of metal materials into large dams and watercourses. Acid mine drainage can occur over a long period. It costs a lot of money to clean it up. Some mines have never been fully rehabilitated.
Mine rehabilitation is very expensive. The costs of rehabilitating mines are ever-increasing. Smaller mining companies have to look closely at the legislation to see what savings they have made when complying with mine rehabilitation requirements. Progressive rehabilitation has become common in sophisticated mining states but there is still no income generated by the mine rehabilitation activities.
Classification systems
When creating a successful mine waste classification system, it is important to keep the following components in mind.
- A means of determining the technical nature of waste
- A clear articulation of the nature of the hazard that the type of waste constitutes
- The best practice means of waste management.
This means regulation at every stage. Mining industry is too variable for it is to be self-regulating. A technically skilled, well supported, and transparent regulatory system is an important part of ensuring proper mining wastewater management.
Technical nature of mine waste
The technical nature of mine waste assessment is best practice jurisdictions carried out during EIS or the environmental impact study before the final approval of the project. The reference terms of the EIS should contain requirements for the assessment of the mine geotechnical features, mine geology, and geochemical behaviour of the waste rock. Without proper assessment, license conditions and detailed permit cannot be developed to ensure that the proponent doesn’t expose human health or the environment to harm. It is often the duty of those who generate mine waste to classify the water they generate.
Waste facilities and generators are required to follow the necessary procedures in the guidelines to make sure they comply with the laws and safeguard the protection of human health and the environment.
Nature of the hazard that the waste constitutes
The element 1 result will determine whether the waste causes acid mine drainage, sodic drainage, or saline or leaching and metallic substances mobilization or compounds. Each of these effects causes different impacts on the environment. The approval or the permit issued to allow mining to take place to address specific effects in detail and require proponents to take the necessary mining waste management to prevent these effects. This can be done by setting standards for toxicity levels, requiring the proponent to do testing of waters and land in the area of the mine and penalizing the proponent for exceeding these levels.
