Mining and Sustainable Development: Oxymoron or RX for a Bright Future? An Update
Krishna
Parameswaran1; Manuel
Ramos2;
1TFGMM STRATEGIC CONSULTING, Scottsdale, United States; 2ASARCO LLC, Tucson, United States;
Type of Paper: Plenary
Id Paper: 105
Topic: 6Abstract:
This paper is an update of a keynote talk with the same title at the 2011 Fray Symposium in Cancun, Mexico in 2011, at which ASARCO LLC received the Fray International sustainability award for its on-going sustainable development initiatives. It attempts to answer the often-asked question of whether metal mining (defined broadly to incorporate mining, beneficiation, smelting and refining) is compatible with the concept of sustainable development. Starting with the classic Brundtland Commission definition of sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, it makes the case that mining can and should be sustainable, using select examples of sustainable mining practices at Asarco. These examples cover the entire mining cycle starting with exploration, operation, closure and post-closure and post mining land use.
Keywords:
Copper; Environmental; Metal; Non-Ferrous; Ores; Processing; Recovery; Recycling; Smelting; Sustainability; Waste;
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Click here to access the Full TextCite this article as:
Parameswaran K and Ramos M. (2017).
Mining and Sustainable Development: Oxymoron or RX for a Bright Future? An Update.
In Kongoli F, Palacios M, Buenger T, Meza JH, Delgado E, Joudrie MC, Gonzales T, Treand N
(Eds.), Sustainable Industrial Processing Summit
SIPS 2017 Volume 1. Barrios Intl. Symp. / Non-ferrous Smelting & Hydro/Electrochemical Processing
(pp. 133-160).
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