June 1995, Australian Government Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources
Mineral extraction industries have been active in Australia for more than 200 years. Only a few early operations were planned in ways that would now be regarded as environmentally appropriate, as environmental issues were not considered as important factors in mine design and layout. However, more recently the mining industry has developed environmental management expertise to ensure environment protection in planning and operating resource development projects. This expertise has been built up across a wide variety of different climatic and geographic conditions in Australia and overseas. The Australian industry includes almost the full range of extractive and mineral products, including iron ore, coal, base and precious metals, building materials and gemstones. Operations range from small scale mining through to some of the largest earth moving operations in the world.
This module examines one crucial part of the process - how mine planning for environment protection can help in developing projects that meet community expectations for minimal environmental impacts. It outlines the considerations that shape mining methods and the design of environmental safeguards. These considerations include air, water and noise quality, transport, biological resources, socioeconomic factors, surrounding land uses, and heritage places and artefacts.
Successful mine planning for environment protection avoids or minimises potentially adverse environmental impacts over the life of the mine and into the future by carefully considering the layout and design of the various components of a mine. The process must integrate community expectations and concerns, government requirements and profitability of the mining project, while minimising environmental impacts. To ensure its effectiveness mine planning is updated and applied continually throughout a project's life. It is part of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process, which protects the environment by examining the likely environmental impacts of mining proposals and minimises those adverse impacts identified through the phases of project planning, construction, operation and decommissioning. A separate module covers the EIA process.
Best practice in mine planning for environment protection is the application of this continual process of testing and evaluating different options to produce a mine design containing the optimal balance of community expectations, government requirements, engineering and cost considerations, and minimised environmental impacts.
Case studies are presented to show how proper mine planning can deliver ecologically sustainable development. The examples are drawn from coal mining, mineral sands production and a hard rock quarry, where an older operation had to adjust to meet changed circumstances and community expectations.
A key theme of the module is the need to integrate mine planning with active community consultation and to conduct environmental monitoring, operator training and compliance auditing within the framework of a comprehensive environmental management system. Other modules in this series provide detailed information on these topics.
