Abstract:
My career as a metallurgist with a U.S. copper mining company ASARCO LLC (Asarco) has been bookended with stints of consulting with Arthur D. Little, Inc (A.D. Little) before my tenure at Asarco and with tfgMM Strategic Consulting, a firm I founded after retiring from Asarco in 2015. This paper discusses how my consulting experience prepared me for my sustainability journey. Dr. Arthur Dehon Little, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology chemist who co-founded the company believed that science and technology can be used to solve societal problems and is illustrated by two examples—making a silk purse from a sow’s ear and flying a lead balloon. My sustainability journey began with the presentation in Bhubaneswar, India of a paper co-authored with Asarco’s Vice President of Governmental Affairs in 1998. That paper examined the trends facing the mining industry, one of which was the application of sustainable development principles to mining.
The last 15 years of my tenure at Asarco provided an in-depth opportunity to research and be involved in projects that promoted sustainable development. Based on 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,” this paper describes how metal mining can be compatible with sustainable development and how sustainability considerations have been applied in the primary copper industry, using selected examples of sustainable mining past and current practices from Asarco operations.
The metals mining, smelting and refining industry has been and will continue to be an essential contributor to the economic and social development for generations to come. The demand for minerals and metals will grow to satisfy the needs of a growing world population which is anticipated to grow from 7.7 billion to 9.6 billion by 2050. In order to meet the challenge of declining ore grades, industry will have to focus on increasing productivity through automation, big data analytics and technological and business innovation. It will face challenges related to regulation, geopolitical risks and demands for increasing transparency from increased scrutiny from shareholders, investment community and the public. There will be pressures to transition to a low-carbon economy. Companies in order to succeed in this environment will have to skillfully navigate these challenges and seize on the opportunities. The papers to be presented in this Symposium address the technical, environmental and socio-political aspects of sustainable development as applied to mining.
Finally, this paper discusses how these considerations might be used in the future by discussing the need for developing a sustainable development strategy and how this strategy can be aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
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