Environmental Management Increases Mining Profits

Conventional wisdom places environmental practices as an obstacle and burden to mining operations – an obstruction to the actual running of a business. Nothing could be further from the truth. For a savvy mining operator, an environmental management plan can be a highly useful tool for maximising profit margins, minimising potential liabilities, increasing efficiency and gaining positive publicity.

An Environmental Management System (EMS) in Australia means implementing an international standard of consistent improvement – namely, ISO 14001. A company which complies with ISO14001 in a given review period will be issued a certificate to that end and will enjoy greater relations with other ISO14001 compliant companies. Having a compliant EMS also serves as significant protection from legal issues, often preventing costly and image-damaging litigation.

ISO 14001 is not designed to dictate to Managers how to run their companies; it is a tool for improving efficiency of business systems and environmental performance. Having an EMS can be a competitive advantage in the tender process, leading to increased tender success and increased business success. Having a certified EMS is a requirement to entering some Japanese or EU markets.

Environmental risk categorisation and rating is a part of a successful EMS, improving your organisation’s ability to manage and mitigate risk associated with the environmental effects of mining operations and their after-effects. Recycling waste and reusing energy is also a key part of an EMS, allowing organisations to reduce operating costs, increasing profit margins. For example, following the Queensland floods earlier this year, water produced as a result of coal seam gas extraction was allowed to be used for removal of mud and debris from flood-affected buildings given that the water quality passed suitable criteria. This produced goodwill and positive publicity for the participating companies, possibly increasing public support for further mine development.

The essence of the ISO14001 standard is that it is a positive feedback loop – to maintain their certificate, a company must improve its environmental management measurably every year. One method of doing this is to introduce automated data logging of important environmental variables, such as the salinity of runoff, or the suspended solids in tailings dams. Automatically logged data can be used to construct much more detailed models than manually collected data, as it can be collected more frequently with ease. Another advantage is that automated collection allows real-time monitoring of on-site conditions, without waiting weeks for lab analysis of samples.

Campbell Scientific Australia is based in Townsville, Queensland and has been a leader in water quality measurement for 18 years, with hundreds of sites across Australia boasting Campbell sensors and data loggers. The company offers automated, on-site logging of water quality data including turbidity, suspended solids concentrations, water temperature, water depth, electrical conductivity, salinity, pH, oxygen reduction potential and dissolved oxygen.

Dissolved solids concentrations are especially important for water quality in an EMS, as standards are set for the suitable use for water in tailings dams etc and often have a maximum allowable suspended solids specification for a given application. For example, the flood water cleanup mentioned earlier allowed CSG water which met criteria of pH, suspended solids and electrical conductivity (often used as a measure of salinity) to be used for that purpose. Different requirements must be met to allow waste water to be used for dust suppression or for revegetation. Campbell Scientific Australia can provide real time monitoring of these criteria, allowing business decisions to be made quickly with instant and historical data available easily. A simple system for a small tailings dam might cost approximately $25000, a negligible cost compared to the overall cost of running a mine.

Real time data logging of water quality is a vital component of an EMS for mining companies and Campbell Scientific Australia’s Application Engineers have the expertise and flexibility to make the integration and support of on-site sensors a successful and profitable project.