Is green mining possible?

(Nov 9, 2007) The Canadian mining industry is trying very hard to turn mining’s image around. But is enviro-friendly mining even possible and can we be convinced?

Long history to overcome
The Mining Association of Canada (MAC), reeling from the all-too-frequent black eyes that Canadian-based mining companies have received in the press over the past decade, is doing its utmost to convince the public that “sustainable mining” is not an oxymoron. Unfortunately, they’re battling a long and dirty history, one fraught with environmental devastation and social indifference.

The catalogue of environmental disasters and human tragedies caused by the mining industry is too long to list, but includes gold mining’s release into the environment of thousands of tonnes of toxic mercury and cyanide, the razing of entire mountains in the name of coal, and a legacy of highly acidic lakes and poisoned river systems as a result of copper extraction. Health issues such a black lung and Weil’s Disease have become legendary.

Innovation or greenwashing?
But the Canadian mining industry is trying very hard to turn mining’s image around. In 2004, MAC began implementing a program called “Towards Sustainable Mining”, a call to action for Canadian mining companies to act in a more socially and environmentally responsible manner. While critics put this initiative down to another case of corporate greenwash, its very existence is a startling milestone for an industry that brought us terms such as “mountaintop removal” and “cyanide leaching”. And by all accounts, mining practices in Canada have improved significantly in recent decades.

Environmentalists weigh in
But even with the best of intentions, is it possible for mining to ever really be sustainable? Can a company extract millions of tonnes of rock from the Earth and still manage to be a friend of the environment? And is it good enough to “contain” mining’s toxic by-products indefinitely, as current “green” mining companies do?

According to MiningWatch Canada, a national non-profit based in Ottawa, the answer appears to be No. “A good mining company,” states their website, “is … more interested in conserving and recycling minerals than in digging up new ones. It seeks alternatives to mining, not its expansion.” In other words, a “good mining company” appears to be one that isn’t involved in mining at all; it appears to be one that is actually a recycling company.

Finite resources
While this may be bitter news for the Mining Association of Canada, it has the ring of truth from an environmental perspective. The amount of extractable minerals on this planet is finite, and therefore every tonne of copper pulled from the ground is one less tonne available for future generations. Given that MAC’s own definition of sustainability includes “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” it would seem that sustainable mining is, strictly speaking, impossible to achieve on a finite planet.

Solutions
Another problem with the whole sustainable mining debate has to do with secrecy in reporting toxic mining waste. Mining companies have not been accurately reporting the amounts being dumped into the environment and in doing so have kept the Canadian people in the dark.

While sustainable mining looks good on paper, the industry has a way to go before it can be considered even remotely green.

Mark Mallet is a LEED Accredited professional consultant and writer based in Vancouver. He specializes in the green building industry.


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