Mining certification
WWF-Australia's Resource Conservation Manager, Andrew Rouse
© WWF-Australia
Our society relies on mined materials for our transport, communication, health care, entertainment, food production, shelter and other needs. These needs must not be met at the cost of the environment and people.
WWF is challenging the minerals industry to minimise the negative environmental repercussions of its principle activities - mineral exploration and exploitation - and maximise the social benefits of its operations.
The mining industry can and must contribute to sustainable development by:
- ensuring that mines are only operated in areas where environmental and social impacts can be responsibly managed;
- acknowledging and respecting that some sites have environmental and social values that preclude mining; and
- ensuring mined materials are reused and recycled to the maximum extent possible.
Snapshot of our activities
- WWF is working to ensure the minerals industry stops environmentally destructive practices, such as riverine tailings disposal (the dumping of mine waste in rivers). Some companies have already made policy commitments to abandon this destructive form of mine waste disposal but the entire industry needs to implement such policies.
- We are involved in the Mining Certification Evaluation Project, evaluating the feasibility of independent certification of mine sites for environmental and social performance.
- WWF is encouraging the mining industry to produce sustainability reports that are an accurate reflection of the company's environmental and social performance. We have developed criteria that enabled us to assess the quality of environmental and social reports. The most recent scorecard, Ore or Overburden II?, released in 2000, assesses the reports of 32 mining companies.
Water and pollution
Some mining processes require large volumes of water. In areas where water is scarce, such as in the Murray-Darling Basin, water demands from mines can only be met at the expense of other uses, including 'environmental flows' which are critical for the health of the environment. Decisions on water allocation, over and above that necessary to maintain environmental flows, should be made according to sustainable development criteria.
We believe the practice of riverine disposal of mining waste should be prohibited in all future mines. As the experience of the notorious Ok Tedi mine in Papua New Guinea demonstrates, with fish stocks dramatically depleted and adjacent rainforest areas smothered by mine wastes, the environmental damage of riverine dumping outweighs the economic benefits of the mine.
Other water and pollution issues include:
- Acid mine drainage, where heavy metals and other toxins are literally drained into waterways.
- Dumping mine waste at sea. Despite a number of mines in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia having dumped, and in some cases continuing to dump, mine waste at sea, to date no adequate research been carried out to establish the nature and scope of the environmental threat this poses.
