McKinsey recently interviewed Tom Albanese about how Rio Tinto is adapting its operations to a future when climate change may make the world’s dry parts drier and wet parts wetter – the link to the video is here and a pdf transcript is here. Water management has become a strategic issue for Rio Tinto, one of the world’s largest mining groups, whose operations tend to be located in areas that are either arid or plagued by torrential rains.
Rio Tinto’s CEO on managing water strategically
January 11, 2010 by cawrseWaste coal mine gas fires up new power station
September 30, 2009 by cawrseThe Moranbah North Waste Coal Mine Gas Power Station is the newest and largest waste coal mine gas fired power station in Central Queensland and stands as a milestone in the quest for cleaner energy sources, Minister for Natural Resources, Mines and Energy Stephen Robertson said today.
Mr Robertson today officially opened the new $60 million, 45 megawatt power station, which is owned and operated by Energy Developments Limited (EDL). The station is supplied with waste coal mine gas sourced from Anglo Coal Australia’s Moranbah North Mine.
The power station takes waste gases from the coal mine and turns it into base load electricity and the reduced emissions will have the effect of taking 350,000 cars off the road. It consists of fifteen 3 megawatt power generation modules using conventional reciprocating gas engines capable of generating approximately 350 gigawatt hours of electricity each year, enough to power approximately 48,000 homes.
Waste coal mine gas is released as a waste product during underground coal mining, which contributes to Australia’s greenhouse emissions.
Mr Robertson said he was delighted to see the leadership shown in such a successful collaborative project between the mining and energy sectors.
“This power station is a good example of collaborative thinking with two companies joining forces to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.
A new model for measuring water use in the minerals industry
September 17, 2009 by cawrse
The mining industry is developing a new system to measure and account for water use across the sector to ensure the scarce resource is used sustainably and efficiently.
The Water Accounting Framework – being developed by the Minerals Council of Australia, the New South Wales Minerals Council and the Sustainable Minerals Institute – will represent the first attempt by any industry in Australia to accurately and consistently measure and account for water use.
“The framework establishes a consistent approach for quantifying flows into and out of minerals operations,” Dr Jason Cummings, the Minerals Council of Australia’s Assistant Director of Environment Policy said.
“Many minerals operations, and companies, have comprehensive water accounting systems in place to measure, monitor and report water use. However, these are often site-specific and hard to use when comparing water use across industries. Industry recognises that there is a clear need to improve the approach.”
“There is also a pressing regulatory need for a consistent picture of the minerals industry’s water use. The Federal Government, under the National Water Initiative, is moving to require all state and territories to report water use consistently. Our Water Accounting Framework is being developed in consultation with the Water Accounting Standards Board and will be an off-the-shelf solution for the minerals industry to adapt their current systems.”
The water accounting framework will greatly improve the industry’s ability to report sustainable use of water, strengthening its claims for access to reliable water supplies, Dr Cummings said.
“It will enhance public and investor confidence in the industry’s ability to access and use water sustainable while providing market regulators with a consistent overview of water use, enabling water access pricing to be set with greater understanding of water quality, inputs and outputs at minerals operations.”
“It will help water regulators reduce over-allocation by providing a more accurate understanding of water used and recycled at minerals operations.”
“The continuing research and development program will further develop appropriate reporting frameworks for minerals operations to enable their water use to be understood by a variety of stakeholders.”
Emissions and energy reporting in force in Australia
September 2, 2009 by cawrseAustralian businesses are for the first time measuring and reporting on their greenhouse gas emissions under the National Greenhouse and Reporting Act of 2007.
The NGER Act sets thresholds for greenhouse gas emissions and energy use and production. Businesses meeting those thresholds had to register by August 31.
Those businesses must report by the end of October on their emissions and/or energy generation or use for the 2008-09 reporting period.
The Minister Assisting the Minister for Climate Change, Greg Combet, says the measuring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions by industry is an important step in the transition to a low carbon future.
Mr Combet says the NGER system, passed into law under the Howard Government, forms the first concrete step towards emissions trading. He says with the proposed commencement of the Carbon Pollution Scheme in mid-2011 there are another two reporting years to test and refine the system in preparation for emissions trading.
Codelco a big spender on sustainability initiatives
June 3, 2009 by cawrse
The world’s biggest copper miner, Chile’s government-owned Codelco, invested $112-million in sustainability last year. The figure includes $54-million spent on environmental management and $58-million on safety.
“It does not only matter the amount of resources we give, it is also important the way we do so,” Codelco president José Pablo Arellano said during the event.
The Chilean government is also considering a new corporate governance law for Codelco, to modify and modernise the way the company is run, and Mining Minister Santiago Santiago Gonzalez urged Parliament to approve the law “as soon as possible”.
The modernisation project is expected to include a $1-billion capitalisation for new investments and result in the creation of some 12 000 jobs.
Blowing up waste to reduce GHG emissions
April 6, 2009 by cawrse
Coal & Allied
Coal & Allied’s Hunter Valley operations, a multi-seam open cut mine located 24km northwest of Singleton, started recycling their waste oil and using it in explosives in June 2008. Since then the method has helped save more than 194,000 litres of diesel (the equivalent of 512 tonnes of carbon dioxide or taking 200 passenger cars off the road). The waste oil comes from pieces of mobile equipment such as haul trucks and excavators – it is collected, filtered and stored on site then added to diesel in equal parts to create an oil/diesel blend. The blend is then used in explosives, reducing the mine’s diesel consumption, where previously pure diesel was used. According to Blast Supervisor Darren Moffitt, the oil/diesel blend is just as effective in the explosives as pure diesel. You can read more about this initiative here.
Mining for Development initiative launched in Sweden
November 7, 2008 by cawrse
The Mining for Development initiative was launched earlier this week by Raw Materials Group, a mineral consultancy, and Global Challenge, a Swedish developmental NGO. Its goal is to find new ways to enable mineral-rich developing countries to benefit from Sweden’s and other Nordic countries’ long experiences of using minerals and mining to foster social and economic development.
The inspiration for this initiative is Norway’s Oil for Development initiative, a project that aims to harness Norwegian experiences in the oil and gas industries in support of sustainable development in oil rich developing countries.
Mining for Development will supplement other initiatives such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and the African Union’s mining project and is supported by a wide range of Swedish actors from industry and government.
Miners lead the way in sustainability reporting
October 20, 2008 by cawrse
Four of the five top rankings in Ernst & Young’s excellence in sustainability reporting survey, which was released on Thrusday, went to companies in the resources sector.
Platinum producer Anglo Platinum, and synfuel producer Sasol shared this year’s top honours, followed by diversified miner BHP Billiton and gold producer Anglogold Ashanti.
Ernst & Young associate director Jayne Mammatt said the tendency for resources to outperform other sectors was probably attributable to the fact that sustainability reporting evolved from environmental reporting.
“Resources companies are perceived as having a greater impact on the environment and, hence, focused efforts on this type of reporting long before other sectors. This could be a reflection of maturity, more than a reflection of the willingness to report,” she said.
Adjudicators from the University of Johannesburg (UJ), together with members of Ernst & Young’s governance and sustainability team, conducted the survey.
UJ professor Alex van der Watt noted that there was an increased integration of sustainability issues into other areas of the annual report, and that the reports contained a more obvious balance between good and bad news.
“The majority of the reports ranked as excellent or good, and contained a section setting out sustainability trends, risks, opportunities, and the organisation’s response to the identified risks and opportunities.”
Van der Watt also noted that the majority of the reports were more concise and user-friendly. Key performance indicators were also used more frequently, and the reports were increasingly dealing with both the positive and negative aspects of the sustainability performance.
However, he noted that there were also some areas of concern, with fewer companies outlining the business case for sustainability. There was also insufficient progress in demonstrating the impact of sustainability performance against the traditional measures of financial performance.
“Reports are not dealing with the wider context of sustainability, that is how the organisation contributes to the improvement or deterioration of social, economical, safety, health, and environmental performance at local, regional, and global level.”
Newmont’s Sustainability Competitive Advantage
August 5, 2008 by cawrse
Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, has recently announced a Mine-to-Market jewellery initiative in which its customers can log on to a website to see where their particular piece of jewellery was mined and learn about the suppliers’ environmental programs. The new line is the result of collaboration between Wal-Mart, Conservation International (a Washington-based conservation group), and Wal-Mart’s supply chain partners, including Rio Tinto, Newmont and jewellery manufacturer Aurafin.
Mine-to-Market Flowchart
Mined and manufactured in conformance with Wal-Mart’s responsible mining criteria and Ethical Sourcing standards, 100 percent of the gold and silver produced for the jewellery line is traceable online. The Ethical Standards program includes standards for suppliers in the areas of compensation, underage labour, environment, and health and safety. Wal-Mart’s sustainability experts and NGO’s developed the criteria forresponsible mining.
Newmont was selected to provide gold from its Nevada mines for Wal-Mart’s jewellery traceability initiative based on the company’s recognized environmental and social performance. In 2007, Newmont became the first and only gold company listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index-World. Clearly, Newmont’s commitment to sustainability not only supports its licence to operate, but is providing it with a competitive advantage.
Interestingly, this is not the first time Wal-Mart has been responsible for driving sustainability within its supply chain. In 2005 it announced its intention to double its truck fleet’s fuel economy by 2015, and so far its fleet of 7,200 trucks have achieved a 15 percent gain which has come mainly from three changes: A fuel additive mix, more fuel-efficient tires and small diesel generators called Alternate Power Units to provide power for things like heating and air conditioning in the cab, allowing the larger truck engine to be turned off rather than idling when the truck is parked.
South Australian Premier wants mining boom to pay for renewable energy
June 25, 2008 by cawrse
South Australian Premier Mike Rann has called on the Federal Government to invest in linking the state’s booming mining industry to renewable energy.
Mr Rann said it was estimated that in another decade South Australia would require an extra 1,000 megawatts each year to power the mining expansion.
That projected demand increase was on top of expanding energy needs in other sectors.
“I would like to see as much of this as possible, and particularly power to our mining industry, to be carbon-free, renewable energy,” the premier said.
Mr Rann said he wanted the Federal Government to use some of its $20 billion Building Australia fund to help connect mining sites directly to renewable energy sources, such as geothermal projects in SA’s outback and the state’s rapidly expanding wind farm sector.
“As South Australia moves into a fully fledged mining construction and production boom over the coming years, its energy needs will be critical,” he said.
“Given the size of South Australia’s mineral assets, any delays to these projects caused by inadequate power supply wouldn’t just be a local concern, it would have a medium- to long-term impact on the performance of the national economy.
“Fortunately, these burgeoning energy requirements can be met through the vast resources of renewable energy available in our outback, which are already located close to many of our major mineral provinces.”
Mr Rann said a Federal Government commitment to improving the transmission and distribution of renewable power would also encourage more private investment in geothermal and wind power.
“Economic development and environmental sustainability must go together,” he said.
