Abstract
The mining industry needs community and regional governmental support to maintain its current activities and, more importantly, to develop future projects. The failure to manage environmental risks in an acceptable manner during mine operation, closing and post-closing periods is a critical factor. The mining industry must regain its reputation that has been lost over decades and centuries of environmental degradation. Several environmental management tools (e.g., life cycle assessment, multi-criteria decision analysis, etc.) are widely applied during mine development, operation and closure periods. Nevertheless, due to uncertainties associated with the post-closure phase and the end of economic activity (implying no more revenues for stakeholders in the form of workers’ salaries and municipality taxes), it is crucial to adopt sound management practices during this period to achieve sustainability in the mining sector.As operational methodologies that can be used as a reference are lacking, the management of environmental risks during and after underground coal mine closures is, in many cases, limited or is developed without specific guidance.This statement is supported by the fact that the European Commission, through the Research Fund for Coal and Steel, encouraged research, pilot and demonstration projects and accompanying measures within the coal sector via the coal programme priority of recent years (2012–2014), namely, the “Management of environmental risks during or after mine closure”.The aim of this paper is to provide mine operators with an organized informational framework that could be applied during future underground coal mine closures independent of the major environmental problems faced and directly connected to the types and characteristics of coal and the exploitation methods used. The investigation was conducted using a literature review and interviews with experts from European universities, research institutions and coal mining companies from Poland and Spain.
Highlights
One of the objectives of the “Strategic Implementation Plan for the European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials” (European Commission, 2013) is to mitigate the negative environmental impacts of the European raw materials sector
Coupling environmental risk management strategies of underground coal mine closures with international standards ISO 31000 (2012) and IEC/ISO 31010 (2009) is not easy to achieve due to the general purposes of these standards
As an operational methodology that can be used as a reference is currently lacking, the management of environmental risks during and after underground coal mine closure is, in many cases, reduced to a minimum or is conducted without specific and contrasted guidance
Summary
One of the objectives of the “Strategic Implementation Plan for the European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials” (European Commission, 2013) is to mitigate the negative environmental impacts of the European raw materials sector. Based on inputs from stakeholders and policymakers, possible actions that should be taken have been grouped under five frameworks called Work Packages. The third one (“Regulatory framework, knowledge and infrastructure base”) calls for the improvement of environmental impact assessment methodologies. After reviewing the literature on mining sustainability, Laurence (2011) argued that limited guidance for mine operators can be achieved to put sustainability frameworks into action. Some environmental management tools focused on mine development, operation and closure periods are widely used: A. Krzemien et al / Journal of Cleaner Production 139 (2016) 1044e1056
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