Abstract
Mining has become increasingly difficult for societal and environmental reasons all over the world. There is increasing competition with other land uses, and water and energy are scarce in many important mining regions. People are not ready to radically reduce the use of mineral-based products, but increasingly oppose mining. The industry faces major challenges to improve its performance and image. The Green Mining concept (GM) was developed as a major tool to make Finland the forerunner in sustainable mining. It promotes material, water and energy efficiency to reduce the environmental footprint of mineral-based product life cycles. GM allows the recovery of all useful minerals and minimises mining waste. GM aims to ensure the availability of mineral resources for future generations, which requires long-term investment in exploration supported by geoscientific mapping, mineral systems research and the development of exploration techniques. An important goal of GM is to minimise adverse environmental and social impacts in all stages of the operations, and to maximise local benefits. GM helps to organise the operations in such a way that they are safe and meaningful to employees, and harmless for local residents and the environment. After mine closure, GM helps to restore the mining areas to make them safe and preferably to allow other types of land use. The broad-based participation of local residents and other stakeholders is crucial throughout the mining life cycle, from early exploration to mine closure. Societies, governments and investors will not tolerate unsustainable mining companies in the future. The mining industry has to solve increasing social, ecological and technical problems of the future by applying holistic concepts, such as the Green Mining concept, to earn the social license to operate.
Highlights
Globalization, the growth of the middle class in most developing economies, and the rapid development of technologies have created growing interest in mineral resources
The economy, society, energy, infrastructure, transportation and materials will look very different in the latter half of the 21st century compared to the present
Metal consumption per capita will decrease, but global consumption will increase due to the growing population and numbers of middle-class people (World Economic Forum, 2015)
Summary
Globalization, the growth of the middle class in most developing economies, and the rapid development of technologies have created growing interest in mineral resources. The total consumption of metals will definitely be higher in the future due to the increasing global population and numbers of middle-class people, consumption per capita will be lower because of improved resource efficiency, recycling, better product design, and substitution of traditional metals by new materials (World Economic Forum, 2015). Anti-mining groups can be globally organised or locally active They are typically driven by ideological enthusiasm. The mining industry has a poor image It is based mainly on past mistakes and neglecting the voice of local communities, or on various more recent conflicts and severe accidents that have gained global visibility. Most mines operate in a sustainable way and the industry has improved, in general, the failures can be actively used as examples to hinder new mine development in any area.
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