catchments,+mines+and+communi1es...
TRANSCRIPT
Catchments, Mines and Communi1es – an integrated catchment management
impera1ve for mining Roger Higgins
Interna.onal River Founda.on Australia
Introduc.on q Miners and River Basin Managers q Water Stewardship q Systems Engineering q Cumula.ve Impact Assessment q Ecosystems Services q Integrated River Basin Management
Miners and River Basin Managers
Mines and River Basins q Mining is an intensive, low volume land use q A mul.-‐genera.onal, temporary land use q Brings changes to communi.es and to society q An intensive, low volume water use q A high value-‐add water use q Sub-‐catchment, catchment and regional scales q A diversity of stakeholders; a diversity of
percep.ons
Agenda q Miners and River Basin Managers v Water Stewardship q Systems Engineering q Cumula.ve Impact Assessment q Ecosystems Services q Integrated River Basin Management
Water Stewardship …. …. is a sub-‐set of a broader ethic that embodies the responsible planning and management of resources through conserva.on and sustainable prac.ces.
Product Stewardship …. …. focuses on the product such as copper or zinc metal q the lifecycle of the product from ore in the ground to final use. q by-‐products and impuri.es. q intermediate processing, disposal and recycling. q arrangements to determine and share responsibility between
miners, metal processors and fabricators and users.
Metal Recycling
…. propor.ons higher when metal prices are high and clearly offset the costs of collec.on and retreatment.
Copper ~ 30% Zinc ~ 20%
Lead ~ 50% Steel ~ 50%
Water recycling in mining q An economic and an environmental impera.ve. q Water is recovered principally from tailings
thickeners and tailings storage facili.es. q Water is consumed (ie: not recovered) principally
from evapora.on from tailings storage facili.es and from inters..al water trapped in deposited tailings.
q 70-‐80% of the water volume required to operate a metal-‐mine concentrator is recovered and re-‐used in the process.
Tailings management = water management
Water releases from mine sites q Weather events
§ Storms, monsoons, tropical cyclones q Open pit and underground de-‐watering
§ Preferred sources of process water q “Keeping clean water clean”
§ Diversions, liners, cappings q Mee.ng release standards
§ storages, treatment, polishing ponds
Industry challenges q Construc.on spoil q Geotechnical design q Overburden dump erosion q Riverine tailings disposal q Acid mine drainage q Reagent spills
Water Stewardship Framework q effec.ve and efficient water
resource management q transparency and accountability
in water use q a catchment-‐based approach to
managing water risk q proac.ve engagement with
stakeholders
Agenda q Miners and River Basin Managers q Water Stewardship v Systems Engineering q Cumula.ve Impact Assessment q Ecosystems Services q Integrated River Basin Management
Systems Engineering Approaches q Quan.ta.ve opera.onal simula.ons
and probability assessments q Data driven, linear and non-‐linear
models q Model selec.on, parameter es.ma.on
and model calibra.on
Engineering Systems / Catchment Systems q The domains of systems engineering
mimic the domains of catchment management
q Baseline data, integrated teams, developments, project lifecycles, catchment processes, process models
q Model selec.on, parameter es.ma.on and model calibra.on Source: Systems Engineering Fundamentals, 2001
Engineering Systems / Catchment Systems q The domains of systems engineering
mimic the domains of catchment management
q Baseline data, integrated teams, developments, project lifecycles, catchment processes, process models
q Model selec.on, parameter es.ma.on and model calibra.on
Catchment Management
Systems Engineering -‐ a few examples q Mine discharge risk § weather events, water usage and storage buffers q Regulatory requirements and internal KPIs § frequency and dura.on of overflows,
shorjalls, quality non-‐compliances q Knowledge transfer from studied to
unstudied river reaches (R Somme) § case-‐based reasoning for model selec.on
and parameter es.mates
Source: Ani, 2009
Agenda q Miners and River Basin Managers q Water Stewardship q Systems Engineering v Cumula1ve Impact Assessment q Ecosystems Services q Integrated River Basin Management
Cumula.ve Impacts – a wicked problem q Difficult enough for a collec.on of exis.ng opera.ons. q Truly wicked ques.on when considering both exis.ng and
poten.al opera.ons, and other land and water users. q Simply first-‐come-‐first-‐served? q Might a future opera.on be a bener project, economically,
environmentally and socially, than an exis.ng one? q Can we design mechanisms which allow for best-‐outcomes
from old prac.ces to new prac.ces?
Cumula.ve Impact Management q Understand and assess the accumula.on
and interac.on of impacts q Collec.ve community reports q Cross-‐company networks, forums and
working groups q Cross-‐company community engagement q Cross-‐company coordina.on of community
and environmental investments Source: Franks, Brereton and Moran (2009)
Cumula.ve Impacts – a few examples q Peace River Florida
§ regulatory effec.veness q Isaac River Queensland
§ geomorphic river channel changes
q Hunter River New South Wales § salinity trading
Source: Dept of Environment and Conserva.on NSW, 2006
Agenda q Miners and River Basin Managers q Water Stewardship q Systems Engineering q Cumula.ve Impact Assessment v Ecosystems Services q Integrated River Basin Management
Ecosystem Services Balance between consump.ve and environmental uses q Provisioning services: food, freshwater, wood, fibre. q Regula.ng services: flood mi.ga.on, disease
control, water purifica.on. q Cultural services: aesthe.c, spiritual, educa.onal,
recrea.onal. q Suppor.ng services: nutrient cycling, soil forma.on.
Sources: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005; Julia Mar.n-‐Ortega et al, 2015.
Ecosystem Services – a few examples q Peru / NYC
§ Paying for catchment headwaters protec.on
q Germany § Planning post-‐mining land uses
q China § Mine output vs loss of ecosystem services
q Biodiversity offsets / habitat preserva.on § No net loss; possible net gain
Ecosystems valua.on – another wicked problem
q Anempts to quan.fy “intangibles”. q Risks leaving some elements in the too-‐hard basket. q Can make implausible assump.ons in order to sa.sfy the
completeness of dollar-‐value matrices. q Can be manipulated to come up with the “right” answer. q 35 corpora.ons were iden.fied as considering Ecosystem
Services, and 7 of these were mining companies (2013).
Miscellaneous q Illegal Mining § Columbia, Peru, Tibet, Guyana, … q In-‐channel mining § Dredging, sand and gravel, gold, …. q Heritage § Snowy R Na.onal Park, Goulburn V, …. q NGOs and NFPs § IRF, Waterkeeper Alliance, SDWF, ….
Agenda q Miners and River Basin Managers q Water Stewardship q Systems Engineering q Cumula.ve Impact Assessment q Ecosystems Services v Integrated River Basin Management
Integrated River Basin Management World Bank Model Focus q Integra.on of economic, social and
environmental issues q Trans-‐boundary planning and management q Incorpora.on of stakeholder and
community views q Sectoral (and sub-‐sectoral) compe..on and
conflicts
IRBM – Anributes of Best Prac.ce q Basin-‐wide ins.tu.onal framework q Good knowledge of the condi.on and
behaviour of the natural resources of the basin q Holis.c view informing policies, strategies,
decisions and projects q Community and stakeholder par.cipa.on q System to measure success – ie: sustainable
basin management
An integrated catchment management impera.ve for mining
q We have the need § Mine boundaries vs watersheds q We have the framework § ICMM, Na.onal mining councils q We have the tools § Cumula.ve impact assessments;
systems engineering; ecosystems services, etc
An integrated catchment management impera.ve for mining
Thank you