Sustainable mining has to ensure to achieve a safe, stable and sustainable outcome. An advanced approach including the entire value chain of raw-materials, from ore extraction to mineral processing, water and waste treatment and from product design to reuse and reclamation is therefore required to improve current practice.
New knowledge concerning sustainable ore beneficiation methods, long-term transformation of the contaminants in mining wastes and mine waters and improved treatment methods for mine waters to prevent impacts to the surrounding environment has to be developed and applied.
Process understanding in space and time is critical to predict the trajectory of environmental impacts and any long-term consequences. In current mining practice, widespread experience has been gathered and applied to address problems related to chemical, physical or mechanical stability of products from mining. Nevertheless, there is only limited experience in predicting longterm performance and their consequences to the environment.
In this session, learnings from past problems and future concepts will be presented which will help to achieve advanced practical resolutions and which will lead to a more reliable and sustainable mining practice and rehabilitation outcome.