Abstract
Sustainability has always been a core concern in the mining industry because the exploitation of mineral resources poses adverse impacts on the environment and society. As a result, the industry is seeking spectacular progress to foster sustainable mining practices that can enable it to be financially viable, environmentally friendly, and socially responsible. Since mining is inevitably endemic with risks, risk assessment could enable the industry to deal with the risks that have significant impacts on its sustainable development. This paper aims to assess the risks that impede sustainable mining in Pakistan. A total of 41 risks were identified and categorized into eight categories based on expert consultation and literature review approaches. A risk assessment model based on the fuzzy synthetic evaluation was developed, which integrated data from 139 experienced mining professionals collected through surveys. The model calculated the probability of occurrence (P), and degree of impact (I) values to quantify scores for each risk factor, each risk category, and the overall risk level. The results showed that risk categories scored from 3.398 to 4.091 (on a scale from 1 to 5). The ranking order of the categories depending on their scores is operational and technical (RC5) > organizational and managerial (RC6) > economic and financial (RC1) > health and safety (RC3) > environmental (RC2) > political and legal (RC7) > socio-cultural (RC8) > natural and external (RC4) >. To provide a basic idea for decision-makers to determine the most problematic risk categories that need to be managed on a case-by-case basis, these categories were classified into three priority levels according to their P and I values. The overall level of risk to sustainable mining was high, suggesting that the strategic focus should be on risk management. This study expands knowledge and literature on risks to sustainable mining that can help develop proper response strategies.
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