Mining Sustainability Working Group

Here are a couple of excellent articles on heavy metal contamination in Guizhou and Hunan, China. Both make mention of small-scale mining. Caijing is probably China’s top business magazine and has really made a name for itself exposing corruption cases. Continue Reading »

http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6273

Michael Busch | July 16, 2009

Editor: Emily Schwartz Greco

Foreign Policy In Focus
www.fpif.org Continue Reading »

…why not blog about the application of Web 2.0 in mining operations?

There is no question – the blogosphere is out there and it continues to grow.  But how does blogging and other web 2.0 technologies impact mining.  Is it ok to have random individuals doing uncontrolled reporting on the mining industry?  How has civil society started to mobilize itself virtually?  If a mining company hosted a blog with a local community, what would be the exit strategy if it went awry? Or could collaborative communication technologies be the key to building transparency and trust between mining companies and their stakeholders, thereby contributing to sustainable governance structures? Continue Reading »

In continuation ….
Mountaintop removal is an international climate change issue: Over 500 massive mountains and 1.5 million acres of hardwood deciduous forests have been clear cut and blown to bits in the US; and the coal exported from mountaintop removal operations, including millions of tons to dirty coal-fired plants in China, contribute to the growing carbon dioxide emissions climate crisis. Meanwhile governments from around the world prepare to examine the option of paying countries not to cut down their forests in order to maintain these areas as storage for carbon and to mitigate climate change. The idea falls under the “Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (UN-REDD)” scheme, up for debate this year’s climate negotiations in Copenhagen. Continue Reading »

Old King Coal

PricewaterhouseCoopers recently released its annual British Columbia Mining Survey, which provides a succinct review of the some of the economic trends of the local mining industry. There are also some comments on environmental and social issues, however the focus is on finances. This is particularly interesting in light of this year’s economic downturn.  What was striking about the report is that BC’s mining industry, overall, has not suffered a downturn, but rather, based on the answers of the 40 (aprox) respondents, gross mining revenues increased by $1.5 billion to $8.4 billion in 2008, up from $6.9 billion in 2007.  This is largely because of spikes in coal prices and increased demand.  Coal has been an important part of BC’s economy for many generations, but has rarely gets attention from the general public.  Coal-bed methane projects have gained exposure, yet there seems to be some apathy around coal mining. Continue Reading »

Reclamation program consists in mitigate environmental impacts by re-establishing the capability of the affected areas. The reclamation process deals with water and air quality, erosion, disturbance of wildlife and aquatic habitats and, as the last phase the mining cycle, reclamation generally includes replacement of soil and revegetation. The BC mining plan (2007), published by The Ministry of Energy Mines and Petroleum Resources of British Columbia, states that although the reclamation phase is the last step in the mining process, “reclamation of sites begins during operations and continues after closure until the land is once again productive”.

Continue Reading »

Title: An Introduction to Participation Agreements: The Indent, Structure, and Implementation.
 
Content: A close reading of the NewGold and Kamloops Division Participation Agreement will be undertaken during a seminar June, 2009 in the Conference Room.  Examined will be the indent of such documents, the structure and components, as well as the vehicles with in the community and company to achieve the goals associated with such agreements.
 
When: Friday, June 26, 2009
 
Time: From 2:00 to 5:00 pm
 
Where: Frank Forward Building
5th Floor – Conference Room (519 A)

Please join us for the first 2009 SWG Greenbag Lunch, at Suite 640 – 580 HornbySt, 6th Floor. Infomine.com has been kind enough to share their space for this meeting. Please RSVP to Rebecca at rebchouinard@gmail.com by June 23rd. We will discuss the direction of this incarnation of SWG lunch meetings. Please bring your own lunch.

These days, the word sustainability appears prominently on any major mining company’s website or promotional materials… often closely associated with social responsibility.

But what do these concepts mean, who defines their bounds, and what constitutes sustainable mining?  This post briefly explores two approaches.  First, the International Institute for Sustainable development takes the carrot approach: Continue Reading »

The following is an article on mineral scarcity, noted in the ecominerals Yahoo group (http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/ecominerals/). I’m entertained whenever I hear about somebody predicting that we will run out of iron (~%5 of the Earth’s crust). That said, the paper touches on the fascinating discussion of how we and the world will cope with another 40+ years of growing population and (hopefully) raising prosperity, combined with water and energy constraints, lower mineral grades, climate, etc. For background info, this falls within the realm of the Club of Rome’s 1972’s “The Limits to Growth” work.

http://europe.theoildrum.com/node/5239

Abstract Continue Reading »