The Potential Re-Use of Saudi Mine Tailings in Mine Backfill: A Path towards Sustainable Mining in Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia covers an area of approximately 2 million km2 and is rich in natural resources that are necessary for industrial development. The estimated mineral wealth beneath the Kingdom’s soil is approximately USD 1.33 trillion, as reported by the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources. The Kingdom’s vision for 2030 is to develop the mining sector to become the third pillar of the domestic economy. Therefore, exploration and mining activities are expected to accelerate over the next decade, which will lead to increased waste production. New executive regulations issued in January 2021 contain several sustainable elements related to the environment, social responsibility, and occupational health and safety. Therefore, this study aims to promote an example of sustainable mining activities in the Kingdom that could be adapted to meet the regulatory requirements. Cemented paste backfill samples of varying composition were made with waste materials from a Saudi copper mine for re-injection into underground mining cavities to minimize waste exposure to the environment. The samples were tested for unconfined compressive strength (UCS) after 7, 14, 28, 56, and 90 days of curing. Results from a statistically designed experiment technique show that the samples developed sufficient strength to be used in mine backfilling applications. Strong negative relationships were detected between the UCS and the water-to-binder ratio. There is strong potential for mine backfill technology to be applied to a wide range of Saudi Arabian mines to enhance the sustainability of the mining sector.

Prospective and Hybrid Alternative of Renewable Energy, For a Sustainable Mining

La minería es una industria intensiva en energía que requiere una fuente estable de electricidad. Con el aumento de la demanda de minerales y la disminución de las leyes, se espera que la demanda de energía aumente en un 36% para el 2035. Este aumento de la demanda depende del uso de combustibles fósiles ya que la electricidad producida y comprada en las empresas mineras se basan principalmente en el caso de los combustibles fósiles, los costos de los sistemas de almacenamiento de energía solar y eólica han caído a una escala sin precedentes, lo que alienta a las empresas mineras a probar estas tecnologías.Entre los factores que influyen en el uso de energía renovable, se encuentra el beneficio a la comunidad en la etapa de operación y cierre o post-cierre de un proyecto minero, el siguiente factor es el perfil de consumo eléctrico o demanda es importante para el cálculo de su almacenamiento o no, de las energías renovables a utilizar. Como tercer factor está el cálculo del consumo en los procesos. Los rangos de penetración determinarán si es posible su almacenamiento de energía, y si es posible utilizar control híbrido (solar - eólico), para ello es importante el uso de herramientas digitales como el programa Holmer, es una herramienta importante que técnica y económica.El gobierno debe tener una perspectiva que ayude en los temas regulatorios necesarios para impulsar proyectos de energía renovable con diferentes incentivos e intereses según el contexto minero.

The road to societal trust: implementation of Towards Sustainable Mining in Finland and Spain

In government, industry and academia, there is a convergence of three trends: (1) the belief that responsible exploration and mining should increase across Europe, (2) industry should follow and ‘Europeanise’ international good practices and (3) a social licence to operate exists not only between a community and a company but also between society and industry. There are two examples in Europe where these trends are converging—Finland and Spain have both adopted the Canadian Toward Sustainable Mining (TSM) program, but the method of implementation is very different. As a result of Talvivaara, Finland took a network governance approach incorporating trust-building measures from the beginning by bringing diverse stakeholders together to create the Finnish Network for Sustainable Mining. Spain chose to integrate the TSM into their national standards, a more traditional and hierarchical approach but one that also relies on a trustworthy entity with clear longevity. Although implementation is in the early stages in both countries, and therefore this paper provides insights only on preliminary outcomes, results indicate that the network approach may not be better at achieving societal SLO suggesting that other factors such as narrative, dialoguing directly with society, implementing trust-building measures in a timely fashion and proven longevity may have more influence than early trust-building measures between network participants.

Impact Evaluation of Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining on Land Use Land Cover: Implication for Sustainable Mining Environment in Niger State, Nigeria

This study evaluated the impact of artisanal and small-scale mining on land use land cover as it applies to sustainable mining environment in Niger State, Nigeria. Thus, thirteen different mining locations covering the three geo-political locations were geo-referenced. The satellite imagery of Landsat TM and EMT+ from Global Land Cover Facilities (GLCF) and Earth Explorer (EE) for tri-images (1994, 2004 and 2014) at 30m resolution was obtained to establish the changes that occurred over the study years. Landsat imageries were analyzed with the aid of computer-based GIS ILWIS 3.3. The imageries were classified into degraded land, settlement, vegetation and water body. Results showed that in 1994, 33.4% of the land use was degraded due to mining, settlement accounted for 3.7% and vegetation covered 59.2%. In 2004, 21.1% of the land was degraded, vegetation decreased from 59.2% in 1994 to 30.9% in 2004. In 2014, land degraded to 47.36%, settlement expanded to 16.06%, vegetation covered 24.22% and water body occupied 12.37% of the mining sites. Within the study period, mining sites increased from 30,000km2 (33%) to 48,000km2 (45%) indicating the severity of mining impact. Therefore, the government should develop strategic mining policy framework targeting a sustainable mining operation in Niger State. Keywords: Mining Effects, Artisanal mining, Environment, Land degradation, Niger State.