Waste Management in the Gold and Silver Industry

Abstract

Sustainable development is strategic for mining companies. In the late 1998, nine of the world’s largest mining companies took an initiative to examine the role of the minerals sector in contributing to sustainable development and how that contribution could be enhanced. This initiative was called the Global Mining Initiative. Through the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) was given the contract to undertake a scoping study in May 1999. The scope of this study was to understand the global challenge of sustainable development facing the mining sector and to propose the scope of a 2-year project to explore the role of mining sector in sustainable development. Following the scoping study, the IIED undertook a 2-year independent process of research and consultation project, which was named the Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development Project (MMSD). The project was carried out between 2000 and 2002, and a final report was published in 2002. In its final report, a set of guiding principles for sustainable development was detailed.