Towards Sustainable Mining Industries in India Challenges

Transcription

1 Towards Sustainable Mining Industries in India Challenges 1. Introduction Dr. Sukumar Devotta Director National Environmental Engineering Research Institute Nagpur The mining and metallurgical sector is vital to the development and economic growth of developing country like India. The products of the sector (including metallic and non-metallic minerals, construction materials or fertilizers) are not only essential for developmental activities and many industrial processes, but are also often a valuable source of foreign exchange earnings. The geological and metallurgical history of India indicates rich mineral resources, some of them known to be in abundant supply. Still, India faces deficit in many minerals. Considering the growing future needs and security of supply of these minerals, India has to enhance its resource base considerably through various options, including intensive exploration drive, improving the recovery and production from the existing resource base and supplies through imports. India also needs to enhance its export potential of a number of minerals and metals, for which it has sufficiently large reserves. Mining operations frequently involve a high degree of environmental impacts, which can extend well beyond the extent of mineralized areas. The impacts of a mining operation commence with exploration activities, extend through extraction and processing of minerals, and may continue well beyond post-closure of the operation. The nature and extent of impacts vary during the various stages of the project life. This paper presents an introduction to the environmental issues associated with mining activities, and the extent to which environmental issues should be addressed with the goal to ensure that the mining and mineral industry becomes sustainable. 2. Mining Industry In comparison with many other sectors, the potential social and environmental issues associated with mining and mineral processing operations are both significant and complex to manage. The fixed location of the mineralized zone of interest imposes a constraint on all aspects of mining developments including the method of mining, location of mine facilities, requirements for new infrastructure and services (or conflict with existing infrastructure), and the suitability of waste management or disposal methods. This in turn profoundly influences the environmental, social and health impacts of mining developments, as well as the economic viability of developing a given mineralized zone.

2 The challenges with environmental assessment of mining projects are two fold. Firstly, environmental, social and health costs should be given adequate consideration while determining the economic viability. Secondly, adequate mitigation measures should be incorporated into the project cycle, including project design, implementation and decommissioning plans. The following issues are of significance: Governments approach to environmental regulation is shifting from centralized decision making, detailed regulations and command-andcontrol approaches to setting clear standards and guidelines; Environmental regulations do not act as a disincentive to investment, provided that the regulations are realistic, transparent and stable; and Mining companies should take full account of social and cultural issues to promote sustainable development. 3. Overview of INDIA S Mineral Sector India produces 89 minerals including four fuel minerals, 52 non-metallic minerals, 11 metallic minerals and 22 minor minerals. Based on the production statistics, India stood as world s largest producer of mica blocks and mica splitting and ranked second in the production of chromites, third in coal & lignite, and barytes, fifth in iron ore, sixth in bauxite and manganese ore, eleventh in aluminium and twelfth in crude steel in the World (IBM, 1999). The share of the mining and quarrying (M & Q) sector in real gross domestic product (GDP) during was 2.57% with its contribution of Rs 201 billion to the value addition, which grew to Rs 252 billion in However, the contribution to real GDP in was reduced to 2.33%. Despite efforts to decarbonise Indian GDP growth, coal is likely to remain the main energy resource due to its domestic availability in abundance and lower cost compared to other energy alternatives. More than a quarter of mineral production comes from the two states of Bihar and Madhya Pradesh and slightly less than 50% of production originates from the ten other states. One quarter of the value of production, mostly oil and gas comes from off shore. Rajasthan, MP, Orissa, Karnatka, AP, Gujarat and Goa produce most of the metallic and non-metallic minerals, while majority of coal resources are confined in the regions covered by Bihar (now Jharkhand), West Bengal, Orissa, MP, Maharastra and AP. With its contribution of about 16 percent in exports and 20 percent in imports, the mineral sector is an important component of India s foreign trade. 3.1 Key Mining Policies The management of mineral resources in India is the responsibility of both Central Government and State Governments as per the Constitution of India. The

3 Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation Act, 1957, ('MMRD') and the Mines Act, 1952, together with the rules and regulations framed under them, constitute the basic laws governing the mining sector in India. The Mineral Conservation and Development Rules, 1988 lays down guidelines for ensuring mining on a scientific basis, while at the same time, conserving the environment. The minor minerals are separately notified and come under the purview of the State Governments. All mining activities have to comply with the environmental legislation of India. The relevant acts are Environment Protection Forest (Conservation) Act 1980 (amended in May 1992) and Environment Protection Act and Rules The Environmental Impact Assessment Notification, 1994 also apply for all the mining projects. 3.2 Key Environmental Aspects Mining operations may be categorized as either surface or underground. Surface mining may be broadly defined to encompass open pit, open cast, quarry, strip, dredging and placer (hydraulic) mining. Underground methods include block caving and long wall mining. Most of these mining operations share a number of common stages or activities, each of which has potentially adverse impacts on the natural environment, social and cultural conditions, or the health and safety of mine workers or communities in the environs of the mine. These activities are: exploration disposal of overburden and waste rock ore processing and plant site operations tailings containment, treatment and disposal infrastructure, access and energy, and construction work camps and operational town sites. The potential adverse impacts of each of these activities (including impacts on air quality, hydrology and water quality, ecology and biodiversity, social and cultural conditions, human health, natural resources and infrastructure) are: land: its availability for mining operations and issues of compensation to farmers; environmental quality: concerns about the degradation of air, water, lands, and forests;

4 post-mine closure: issues of unemployment, income potential, migration rates, alcoholism, and environmental cleanup; human and physical investment in the region: education, basic amenities, rent-sharing with locals, training opportunities, and health care facilities; social and community relations: nongovernmental organizations' interference, political interference, media under-reporting of problems, cosmetic attention to problems, and consultation; and effective administration: rule enforcement, goals achieved, and accountability. 4.0 Building Capacity for Improved Environmental Management Capacity building for improved environmental management involves activities which range from development of appropriate environmental, safety and health standards within the ministries of mining or environment (or equivalent), to ensuring that responsibilities for undertaking specific actions to prevent or control accidental releases of process chemicals from a mining operation. The principles which guide development of environmental management capacity should include the following: The development of a regulatory framework and environmental, health and safety standards, should take due account of accepted international practices, the availability and cost of the associated technological controls incountry, and the baseline environmental conditions. Effective environmental regulation is critically dependent of enforcement capacity, the availability of injunctive measures to help enforce compliance, the use of such measures where appropriate, and the ability of the mining sector to finance the costs of compliance. Regulation of the informal sector is fraught with practical difficulties. The first priority should be to formalize small-scale artisanal operations as the basis for managing the associated environmental issues. It is imperative to ensure that disincentives related to formalization (such as taxes or land titling fees) do not outweigh perceived benefits. This may require educating informal miners of the benefits of formalization, perhaps through grant assisted access to environmentally sound low-cost technologies (such as retorts for ore recovery of mercury) or guidance on sustainable mining techniques. In practice, there are benefits in ensuring that costs to informal miners are minimal (at least initially), as the hidden costs of environmental degradation, social and health impacts of informal mining are likely to be very high.

5 The interrelated nature of the social, health and environmental impacts of mining should be recognized, and maximum advantage gained from the complimentary nature of measures aimed at mitigating such impacts. In managing the ongoing environmental, social and health impacts of private and public sector industrial mining operations, an environmental management plan (EMP) approach to systematically manage these aspects is strongly recommended. An EMP should encompass the organizational structure, responsibilities, and procedural controls to ensure sound environmental and safety management. While the responsibility for managing environmental, social and health programs of industrial mining operations is likely to be placed at several levels (from senior management to mine workers), the manager(s) with the prime responsibility for these issues should be allocated sufficient authority and budget to effectively manage the issues, for example hiring or contracting specialists to develop a reclamation plan. The employment of a community liaison officer to act as the focal point for community issues and concerns is strongly recommended. 4.1 Monitoring and supervision A monitoring plan should be prepared for projects involving development or expansion of industrial mining, as part of or separate to an environmental management plan (EMP). This sets the framework for assessing the acceptability of impacts from ongoing operations and the need for additional mitigation. The level of detail will depend on the scale and complexity of the mining project. The plan should define monitoring objectives, which clearly identify the questions to be answered by measurement activities. It should include a description of monitoring to be performed and linkages to impacts and mitigation measures identified in the environmental assessment. The parameters to be measured, sampling locations, methods to be employed, frequency of measurements, detection limits (where appropriate) and definition of thresholds that will trigger remedial actions should also be specified. Working from this core set of issues, the TERI researchers developed three tools for measuring the impact of mining activities and their effect on wellbeing: (1) a set of environmental and social performance indicators to measure the economic, environmental, and social costs of mining; (2) a "quality of life" instrument to assess the well-being of people in mining areas over time; and (3) an income-accounting tool to gauge the long-term economic viability of mining activities. 4.2 Promoting Sustainable Development The role of mining in sustainable development is one issue that decision makers and resource managers have wrestled with for decades. With the

6 development of their income-accounting tool, it can be attempted to show how mining activities, which have a finite life span, can be integrated with social and environmental concerns in a way that promotes long-term community development. The approach adopted can place a monetary value on the effects of mining, such as air and water pollution, loss of forests, groundwater depletion, mineral resource use, and reduced agricultural productivity. It also takes into account the direct and indirect benefits to society. In the case of forests, for example, this would include the economic benefits gained from the generation of marketable products and the indirect benefits from watershed protection and other services. These environmental costs can be seen as an additional amount that should be contributed by the mining company to finance environmental rehabilitation using the "polluter pays" principle. TERI used similar accounting practices to place values on the health and social costs of mining. To ensure the economic viability of communities after the resource has been exhausted, money would be set aside to finance human and community development. This could help offset one of the main problems associated with mine closures: the lack of skills and resources for alternate economic development. The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is a public corporation established by Canada in 1970, to help researchers and communities in the developing world, to find solutions to their social, economic, and environmental problems. Support is directed toward developing an indigenous research capacity to sustain policies and technologies developing countries need to build healthier, more equitable, and more prosperous societies. 4.3 Ecosystem Approaches to Human Health Human health and well-being are intimately tied to the health of the ecosystems that sustain life. Yet the potential for improving health by better managing the local environment is an avenue rarely explored in mainstream health programming. Through its Ecosystem Approaches to Human Health (Ecohealth) Program Initiative, IDRC aims to identify the web of economic, social, and environmental factors that influence human health. Communities can then use this knowledge to better manage ecosystems and improve the health of both people and the ecosystem. 5.0 Conclusions Considering the growing future needs and security of the supply of minerals, India has to enhance its resource base considerably through various options including intensive exploration drive, improving the recovery and production from the existing resource base and ensuring supplies through imports. While technically robust approaches to managing and mitigating the

7 environmental impacts of mining are well developed, socioeconomic issues associated with mining present significant unresolved challenges. Primary environment and social policies and guidelines must include: Policy and procedures for environmental assessment, whereby potential impacts are taken into account in selecting, siting, planning, and designing projects. Policy to encourage and support borrowing governments to prepare, implement and maintain environmental action plans Policy to promote economically viable, environmentally sustainable and socially equitable water management. Policy to ensure that indigenous people benefit from development projects and those projects' potentially adverse effects are avoided or mitigated. Policy and procedures towards displaced persons in operations involving involuntary resettlement. Policy on forest sector lending to reduce deforestation, enhance the environmental contribution of forests, promote aforestation, reduce poverty, and encourage economic development. Policy to support the protection, maintenance, and rehabilitation of natural habitats.