Ranking and scoring potential environmental risks from solid mineral wastes

The overall environmental performance of minerals beneficiation operations, in addition to their significant energy demand, is largely a function of the success or failure of waste management strategies to minimise the long-term impacts associated with the disposal of vast volumes of solid waste. Whilst forecasting such impacts, particularly in the early stages of a project, is arguably the most important element in an environmental performance assessment, it remains the most challenging. This paper describes a generic methodology which has been developed for ranking and scoring solid waste constituents on the basis of their hazard-forming potential and chemical behaviour under disposal conditions. The approach is demonstrated for the case of typical porphyry-type copper sulfide tailings. The predictive approach developed here is consistent with the screening phase of risk-based environmental assessment protocols, and is considered to be a vital and integral part of reliably quantifying the environmental life cycle impacts of solid mineral wastes.