Sustainability Assessment of Angouran Lead and Zinc Mining Complex

Abstract

Besides economic development, environmental and social impacts of mining on surrounding communities have been a major concern to governments, public, and stakeholders while the contributions of mining activities to economic development of Iran is well acknowledged, the gains from the mining sector to the economy is achieved at significant environmental, health, and social costs to the country. In order to investigate this subject, a sustainability assessment is done on Angouran lead and zinc mining complex as one of the largest open-pit mines in Iran and Middle Eastern countries. For this purpose, the environmental, social, and economic factors influencing sustainability of the project were identified through literature and field investigation, which were divided into 30 effective impacting factors. The study was based on 16 questionnaires. The results show that when comparing the main three aspects of sustainable development as economic, social, and environmental, the environment component has the most impact, whereas the social component has the least impact, as the least influencing component. Furthermore, among each individual aspect of sustainability, forest and ecosystem destruction, capital cost, final price, and employment are the most important with the obtained values of 1.063, 1.652, 1.706, and 1.511, respectively. Besides noise, NPV, and satisfaction of indigenous people have the lowest impact with the obtained values of 0.145, 0.635, and 0.818, respectively. With regards to results of the study, mine planners identify the undesirable impacts of mine activities on the region and are able to change their strategies in the mine and implement some remedial actions to reduce the destructive effects of mining on the region.