The South African state and the regulation and management of mining waste

A critical issue in mine waste management is the management and mitigation of acid rock drainage and metal leaching particularly from waste rock. This requires good understanding and characterization of materials most likely to generate acid pH waters and generate leachable metals and metalloids, as well as the presence of minerals most likely to neutralize acidic pH such as carbonates and certain silicates. For low-sulfidation epithermal deposits in silica-rich volcanic rocks, neutralization minerals are rare. Consequently, determination of acid generation is almost entirely a function of sulfide content of the rocks. By understanding the distribution of sulfide minerals within such a deposit, an initial mine waste management plan can be developed. The Rochester mine currently exploits a low-sulfidation epithermal gold-silver deposit and is located on the southern flank of the Humboldt Range in west-central Nevada. The Rochester mine is a conventional open-pit mining operation with cyanide heap leaching and Merrill Crowe processing. Silver and lesser gold mineralization occur associated with sulfide minerals hosted in Permian-Triassic Koipato Group rhyolitic units with extensive quartz-sericite-pyrite alteration. Gangue mineralogy of the deposit is dominated by slow or unreactive silicate minerals with little or no carbonate. Silver-bearing mineralization was controlled by primary hypogene sulfides and secondary supergene oxidation processes, and most of the mineralized material mined to date has been fully or partially oxidized. Oxidation mobilizes and depletes all forms of sulfur from primary sulfide minerals. Due to the low sulfate content and low content of neutralizing gangue phases, the waste rock classification can be based on total sulfur content. Based on the analysis of pulp samples collected from within the mine area, a sulfur block model was developed and compared to the results of standard acid-base accounting and net acid generation tests. This comparison demonstrates the benefit of the block model in identifying zones of potentially acid-generating material in the mined waste. Application of this information to mine planning has allowed more efficient management of acid-generating mine waste by allowing the operator to develop areas of the waste rock facility to receive the waste in a timely fashion. Such an approach is based on good mine geologic and mineralogical characterization and the use of a representative and comprehensive geologic block model.

There is no doubt that improved hazardous waste management in mining and mineral processing will reduce environmental and health risks in South Africa. However, sceptics fear that waste reduction, appropriate treatment and disposal are not affordable within the current economic circumstances of the country. In particular, it is argued that higher treatment and disposal costs would weaken the country's international competitiveness in important export markets on the one hand, and place heavy adjustment costs on black workers on the other. Thus, improvements in waste management are not enforceable, from either an economic or a social point of view. This article deals mainly with the first aspect and touches upon the second. It investigates the short-term and long-term sectoral impacts of an environmental tax on hazardous waste in South African mining, using an open-economy multisectoral computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. The results bear out the expectation that the possibilities for shifting higher production costs are limited in an open economy. Moreover, the results also show that the brunt of the adjustment resulting from an isolated approach towards hazardous waste management will have to be borne by black workers.

Growing demand for natural resources coupled with declines in ore grades globally areincreasing the environmental footprint of the extractive industry, in particular throughhigher energy and water consumption and waste generation. There are a variety ofsustainability frameworks that have been designed for the mining industry and each ofthese define principles and strategies to improve the industry’s sustainability performance.However, most of these frameworks are missing a key characteristic related to thefundamentally different nature of mining compared with other industrial activities: themineral resource itself. An important contribution to sustainable development by miningprojects is the way they manage to maximise value and minimise waste from ore deposits,each deposit having its own unique properties.Industrial ecology (IE) is a multidisciplinary field of research that studies the flows andstocks of material and energy within society, and their impact on the environment, with theaim of designing more sustainable production and consumption systems. This thesisapplies industrial ecology ideas and tools to the metal mining industry, and focuses onflows of mineralised material, observing the causes and consequences of mineral lossesoccurring at the mine site level.The IE framework developed has three main levels of analysis. The first level focuses onmine waste management. Mine waste management practices were reviewed andassessed in terms of whether they inhibit or enable future mineral resource recovery, orany other value creation from the local mineralised material. A new Mine WasteManagement Hierarchy ‘reduce – reprocess – downcycle – dispose’ was developed inaccordance with principles of waste minimisation and value maximisation, and illustratedwith examples from reported practices as well as academic research.In order to connect better the mine waste management system with the rest of the mine’smetabolism, the second level of the framework proposes a set of Material Flow Accounting(MFA) indicators, which provides a general view of the site’s internal mineral flows. Thisset places a particular emphasis on quantifying mineral losses, which occur throughdifferent dissipative mechanisms, and with an evaluation on whether these losses areirreversible or potentially recoverable. The MFA indicators have been applied on two case studies in Australia: the former goldand now abandoned mine, Mount Morgan in Queensland, and the copper mine, MountLyell in Tasmania. As both mine sites have had long histories, they have hosted severalmining ventures whose performances have been assessed and compared using the MFAindicators. Comparisons of the different mining ventures at each case study site allowedfor identifying the conditions for prolonging the life of mining operations and increasingmineral recovery, either from the ore deposit itself or by recycling mining waste. Suchoutcomes are desirable from a sustainability perspective in the sense that they take intoaccount both the exhaustibility of a non-renewable resource and the need to minimiseenvironmental impacts of mineral-rich waste material. The MFA results also allow forquantifying the consequences of unplanned and incomplete closures, long-terminterruptions in operations and poor waste management, which have all contributed toexacerbating mineral losses.The third and last level focuses on the role of governments in relation to the two casestudy sites. In particular, it was found that governments have a significant role to play, andthis was demonstrated through the strengthening of environmental regulations over thepast century, which has led to reduced mineral losses. However, the Queensland andTasmanian governments’ regulatory frameworks still could be improved in order to preventor better control the consequences of premature closures of mining projects. This wouldrequire stronger links between the relevant environmental protection and mining stategovernment departments. Using the Mine Waste Management Hierarchy as baseprinciples for best practices in mine waste management, and using the MFA indicators toassess the performance of mining projects during the approval process could both informpolicy-makers on potential ways to improve the current regulatory systems and helpstimulate a positive change in mining practices.

There is no doubt that an improved hazardous waste management in mining and mineral processing will reduce environmental and health risks in South Africa. However, skeptics fear that waste reduction, appropriate treatment and disposal are not affordable within the current economic circumstances, neither from an economic nor from a social point of view. This paper mainly deals with the first aspect and touches upon the second. It investigates the short-run and long-run sectoral impacts of an environmental tax on hazardous waste in South African mining using an open-economy multisectoral general equilibrium model. The results bear out the expectation that the possibilities for shifting higher production costs are limited in an open economy. Moreover, the results show that the brunt of adjustment of an isolated approach towards hazardous waste management has to be beared by black workers.

The province of British Columbia has long been one of the world’s major mining jurisdictions. Histori cally, mining played a major role in the development and economy of the province, and this continues to be th e case today. Many of B.C.’s mines are operating in mountainous, wet terrain that poses a formidable challen ge to management of tailings, waste rock, and discharge e ffluent. British Columbians take immense pride in the beauty and splendour of their province, which they consider the “ Best Place on Earth ”, and the protection and preservation of this heritage is the pre-eminent re quirement to be factored into mine waste management solutions. Those solutions have changed significan tly over the course of four decades, and have refle cted advances in the state of practice, technology, and societal and regulatory expectations and processes. The mining industry has met these challenges, and conti nues to do so as ever more difficult terrain and am bitious projects are contemplated. A Long and Storied Mining Heritage The history of mining in B.C. long pre-dates the ar rival of the first European settlers. Mining activ ity in the Province began with the First Nations people s in the north, who gathered and traded obsidian (volcanic glass) from the area of Mt. Edziza as far back as 9-10 thousand years ago (Fladmark, 1984). Members of the Tahltan First Nation were also perhaps the first to exploit B.C.’s mineral wealth for trade and export, there being evidence of quarried Mt. Edziza obsidian, used for arrowheads and tools, at prehistoric sites in Alaska, Yukon, the Northwes t Territories, Alberta, and throughout British Columbia. While the Tahltan undoubtedly faced a number of challenges in obtaining the obsidian, management of mine waste was not among them. Times have changed. Mining in B.C. entered a new chapter with the arriv al of settlers from Europe in the 19 th century. B.C. became one of the world's significant mining region s since the mid-1800s and remains to this day an important producer, exporting substantial amounts o f copper, gold, silver, lead, zinc, molybdenum, coal and industrial minerals every year. The Hudson 's Bay Company first started mining coal on Vancouver Island in the 1840’s. The discovery of go ld along the Fraser River in the 1850’s sparked the Cariboo gold rush, which facilitated the settlement of many parts of that region. Indeed, the search for, development, and export of B.C.'s vast mineral reso urces collectively have constituted a key driver of the province's growth and development, a process th at continues today with mine exploration and development in B.C.’s northwest, which has in turn led to a go decision for the Northwest Transmission Line , a $404-million, 344-kilometre transmission line p roject key to unlocking the immense mineral wealth in that part of the province , a projected scheduled for completion in 2013. By the early 1960’s, technology had advanced so as to make feasible large scale open-pit production. Many significant open pit copper mines opened in B.C. around that time, including the enormous Highland Valley Copper operation, today the largest copper mine in Canada and one of the largest copper mining and concentrating operations in the w orld. Other open pit mines are currently being operated, constructed, or contemplated, in consider ably more mountainous terrain and wet climates than a number of the province’s earlier open pit op erations.

<p>In Morocco, no measures have been taken to manage residual waste from operational or abandoned mining and quarries sites.</p><p>Indeed, significant quantities of mine waste, composed of concentrator residues and sterile waste, have been abandoned after the closure of operations without any effective management or rehabilitation planning.</p><p>These residues could have harmful impacts on the environment: soil and water pollution, destruction or disturbance of natural habitats, visual impact on the countryside...</p><p>The valorization and sustainable management of mining waste appear to be adequate solutions to major environmental problems. The construction sector can be a profitable sector to absorb chemically stable mining waste.</p><p>The objective of this research work is to study the feasibility of recycling waste from the abandoned Kettara mine (Morocco) and gypsum waste rock in Sidi Tijji (Morocco) as raw materials in construction materials.</p><p>The study consists first of a geological characterization and then a characterization of the physical, chemical and mineralogical properties of the residues, followed by an evaluation of the mechanical properties of the composite mixtures based on the chemically stable residues.</p><p>The Kettara mine is located in the Jbilet Central Mountains, 30 km northwest of Marrakech. Geologically, the pyrrhotite district of Kettara corresponds to the outcrop area of the volcano-sedimentary series of Saghlef shales. For the gypsum quarry at Sidi Tijji, which is part of the Safi basin, characterized by Jurassic outcrops essentially formed by gypsum and carbonate formations.</p><p>Mineralogical and chemical analysis have shown that these waste products are still rich in minerals such as the waste from the Kettara mine; the FeO3 concentrated amounts to 55.6%. In addition, gypsum waste rock represents a concentration of 28.9% CaO. Therefore, a low water content for the majority of samples.</p><p>Adapting to the principles of integrated recovery and management of mining and quarry waste requires a cultural change within the industry, but also in the ministries concerned.</p><p><strong>Keywords</strong>: Valorization, mine waste, mines and quarries, construction materials.</p>

The primary purpose of oil sands mine planning and waste management is to provide ore from the mine pit to the processing plant while containing the tailings in an efficient manner in-pit. Incorporating waste management in the mine plan is essential to maximize the economic potential of the mineral reserve and minimize waste management costs. However, spatial variability such as grade uncertainty results in ore tonnage variations, which leads to fluctuations in the quantity of ore to be processed and waste to be managed. This paper investigates the application of a stochastic mixed integer linear programming (SMILP) on oil sands mine planning to integrate bitumen grade uncertainty and waste management. Sequential Gaussian simulation is employed to quantitatively model the spatial variability of bitumen grade in the oil sands deposit. Multiple simulated orebody models are used as inputs for the SMILP model to generate optimal mine plans in the presence of grade uncertainty. The results demonstrate that the SMILP schedule generates 14% and 17% improvements in net present value compared to the E-type and ordinary kriging schedules, respectively. These results indicate that the SMILP model is a robust tool for optimizing stochastic integrated oil sands production schedules and waste management.

Tungsten (W) is an emerging contaminant of concern whose high mobility in the environment is of scientific debate. It is also a critical raw material whose mining is expected to increase. Mine waste management aims to create an anoxic environment of neutral pH to limit sulfide oxidation and acid mine drainage. This study evaluates the stability of W-minerals under such geochemical conditions to develop recommendations for W mine waste management. Intact cores of legacy mine tailings from Morkulltjärnen, Sweden, were collected and analyzed using whole rock geochemistry and XRD. Monolayers with minutes amounts of W were generated by hydroseparation and studied using SEM-EDS, automated mineralogy, and microprobe analysis. Scheelite concentrates from the decommissioned processing plant were analyzed with XRF and 7 step sequential extractions. Groundwater was collected from eight wells in the Morkulltjärnen tailings in 2023 and 2024 and analyzed for 71 elements, anions and chemophysical parameters. This is one of the first field studies presenting mineralogical signs of scheelite weathering with tabular morphology, rod-shaped and porous structure, and loss of W from the crystal lattice, leading to very high concentrations (up to 23 mg/L) of dissolved W in anoxic and alkaline groundwater. This shows that standard mine waste management practices are unsuitable for scheelite, and action is needed to limit W mobilization into the surrounding environment from scheelite-rich tailings. Adsorption onto Fe-(hydr)oxides may be effective for controlling W mobilization from legacy mine waste, but in new mines, sulfides and tungstates should be separated in the processing plant and stored under anoxic and oxic conditions, respectively.

The management of mining waste is a crucial aspect in maintaining the balance between the exploitation of natural resources and environmental protection. PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (Antam), as a mining company, strives to implement sustainable waste management policies to support the concept of Green Business in Indonesia. This study aims to analyze the role of national and international regulations in mining waste management and the implementation of these policies by Antam based on its 2020-2023 sustainability report. Using a normative juridical approach, this research finds that although regulations governing waste management are in place, challenges remain in their implementation, including harmonization with international standards and the effectiveness of supervision mechanisms. Therefore, strengthening regulations and enhancing transparency in waste reporting and management are necessary to ensure that the mining industry aligns with sustainability principles.

Mining operations are integral to industrial development and economic growth, but they generate substantial waste, posing severe environmental and health risks. The environmental footprint of mining operations is significantly influenced by the nature and management of mining waste, which includes overburden, tailings, smelting slag, chemical effluents, radioactive residues, and gaseous emissions. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of these waste types, their associated ecological concerns, and prevailing mitigation strategies. Emphasis is placed on the adoption of science-based, economically viable, and scalable solutions that align with circular economy principles. A novel decision-support tool, the Composite Mining Waste Management Index (CMWMI) was developed to evaluate and rank various waste management strategies using weighted criteria: environmental effectiveness, economic feasibility, technological maturity, and scalability. The index reveals that backfilling and dry stacking score highest in sustainability and practicality. This integrative framework enables policymakers, engineers, and environmental managers to make informed decisions that enhance the sustainability of mining activities while mitigating long-term ecological and public health risks. Advanced technological solutions, including AI-driven waste monitoring, tailings reprocessing, bioremediation, and carbon capture, were examined for their role in minimizing the environmental footprint of mining activities. Regulatory frameworks and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives were also discussed as crucial elements in enforcing sustainable mining practices. The study offers a replicable framework that can be tailored to specific mining contexts to guide responsible waste management, promote circular economy integration and ecological sustainability.

Chemical Containment of Waste in the Geosphere deals with chemical processes within the geosphere that may be harnessed to contain a wide range of wastes, a topic of major importance for sound environmental management. Both technical and philosophical issues concerning waste containment are considered. The book contains contributions from experts in many waste containment technologies and covers a number of issues, ranging from the regulation of radioactive waste management to the design of liners for landfills and the management of mine wastes. An introductory contribution highlights the underlying chemical principles that are common to all forms of waste management by geological means, and that rely to some extent upon chemical containment. The remainder of the book is divided into six sections: • The place of chemical containment in regulatory frameworks • Chemical containment properties of the deep geosphere • The role of chemical containment in clay barriers • Chemical containment properties of cementitious engineered barriers • Containment of metalliferous wastes • Investigative methods The book will appeal to all those who are concerned with technical aspects of waste management. Established researchers will benefit from the multi-disciplinary character of the volume. Regulators and planners concerned with waste management will be able to gain an overview of major technical issues relevant to waste containment. The volume will also be a useful source for post-graduate level students of environmental science, waste management and geochemistry.

Strategic mine planning and waste management are an important aspect of surface mining operations. Recent environmental and regulatory requirements make waste management an integral part of mine planning in the oil sands industry. The research problem here is determining the order of extraction of ore, dyke material and waste to be removed from a predefined ultimate pit limit over the mine life that maximises the net present value of the operation. We have developed, implemented, and tested a proposed mixed integer goal programming theoretical framework for oil sands open pit production scheduling with multiple material types. The formulation uses binary integer variables to control mining precedence and continuous variables to control mining of ore and dyke material. There are also goal deviational variables and penalty costs and priorities that must be set up by the planner. The optimisation model was implemented in TOMLAB/CPLEX environment. The developed model proved to be able to generate a uniform schedule for ore and dyke material. This is in line with recent regulatory requirements by Alberta Energy Resources and Conservation Board (Directive 074) which requires oil sands mining companies to develop life of mine plans which ties in to their in-pit tailings disposal strategy. It also provides a practical mining sequence that is consistent with mining oil sands deposit. Similarly, tradeoffs between achieving a goal and maximising NPV can be made.

There are approx. 250 coal waste dumping grounds in Poland, yet there are countries in which this number is even higher. One of the largest sites for depositing mining and power plant waste in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin is the Przezchlebie dumping ground. In the article, it is considered as a secondary deposit of raw materials. An assessment of mining waste collected on the Przezchlebie dumping ground was carried out in terms of its impact on the environment and the possibility of its use. Mining waste samples were tested to determine their chemical composition. Physicochemical properties and chemical compositions of water extracts obtained from the investigated waste and groundwater in the vicinity of the dumping ground were analyzed. Due to the fire hazard resulting from the natural oxidation process of chiefly carbonaceous matter and pyrite, the thermal condition of the dumping ground was assessed. The results of the obtained tests confirmed the slight impact of mining waste deposited on the Przezchlebie dumping ground on the environment. The chemical composition, low radioactive activity of waste itself and the results of water extract tests referred to the permissible values according to the Polish Journal of Laws allow for multi-directional waste management. Due to the significant carbon content, the risk of self-ignition poses a significant threat on the dumping ground. Re-mining of the dumping ground and the recovery of raw materials, including coal contained in waste, will eliminate the risk of fire, allowing for a wider use of waste and, at the same time, will allow for other benefits, e.g. in the form of financial resources and the possibility of managing the dumping ground area.

As waste management regulations become more stringent, yet demand for resources continues to increase, there is a pressing need for innovative management techniques and more sophisticated supporting analysis techniques. Sequential extraction (SE) analysis, a technique previously applied to soils and sediments, offers the potential to gain a better understanding of the composition of solid wastes. SE attempts to classify potentially toxic elements (PTEs) by their associations with phases or fractions in waste, with the aim of improving resource use and reducing negative environmental impacts. In this review we explain how SE can be applied to steel wastes. These present challenges due to differences in sample characteristics compared with materials to which SE has been traditionally applied, specifically chemical composition, particle size and pH buffering capacity, which are critical when identifying a suitable SE method. We highlight the importance of delineating iron-rich phases, and find that the commonly applied BCR (The community Bureau of reference) extraction method is problematic due to difficulties with zinc speciation (a critical steel waste constituent), hence a substantially modified SEP is necessary to deal with particular characteristics of steel wastes. Successful development of SE for steel wastes could have wider implications, e.g., for the sustainable management of fly ash and mining wastes.

The sustainable management of mining wastes, a byproduct of extractive activities, represents a critical challenge in the context of the Critical Raw Materials Act (European Commission, 2023) and the transition to a circular economy. Mining waste dumps may contain significant residual amounts of ore minerals or metals, including Critical Raw Materials (CRMs), making their mapping and evaluation essential for environmental remediation and possible resource recovery. Developing detailed regional or national maps is pivotal to identifying mining waste dumps' location, typology, distribution, and spatial extent. Integrating Geographic Information System (GIS) software with complementary tools such as Google Earth, topographic maps, and orthophotos offers a comprehensive approach to efficiently identifying and analysing these sites.Sampling and characterising mining waste dumps is crucial to assessing their economic potential and environmental impact (Beltré et al., 2023). Mineralogical analyses (e.g., X-ray diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscopy, RAMAN, and Electron Microprobe) and chemical analyses (e.g., Portable X-ray Fluorescence, ICP-MS, or ICP-OES) enable the evaluation of mineral processing residues. This differentiation helps identify economically viable dumps and prioritise remediation efforts for non-viable sites with contamination risks. (Lemière et al., 2011)These methodologies are now applied to developing the Metallogenic Map of Sardinia, which will include the mapping of different mining waste dumps in Sardinia and their sampling.The crucial challenges of this project are accurately estimating dump volumes due to difficulties in identifying underlying bedrock and quantifying critical metal content. Addressing these gaps is crucial for effective resource valorisation and site rehabilitation. To date, 140 mining waste samples have been collected and are under analysis to assess their economic and environmental potential. This study integrates GIS technologies with environmental and economic assessments as a pathway to support sustainable exploitation and management of mining waste dumps, aligning with EU strategic goals for CRMs. Keywords: Critical Raw Materials, Circular Economy, Resource valorisationEuropean Commission (2023) - Study on the Critical Raw Materials for the EU. Fifth list. Final report. Rosario-Beltré, A. J., Sánchez-España, J., Rodríguez-Gómez, V., Fernández-Naranjo, F. J., Bellido-Martín, E., Adánez-Sanjuán, P., & Arranz-González, J. C. (2023). Critical Raw Materials recovery potential from Spanish mine wastes: A national-scale preliminary assessment. Journal of Cleaner Production, 407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.137163 Lemière,, Cottard, F., & Piantone BRGM, P. (2011). Mining waste characterization in the perspective of the European mining waste directive.