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Water Management and Stewardship in Mining Regions

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Handbook of Water Resources Management: Discourses, Concepts and Examples

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Abstract

Mining operations interact with water in complex ways. Ore is essential for society while water is an essential input for the extraction and processing of orebodies. Mining can pose threats to surrounding water bodies. Increasingly, mining companies, investors and governments recognize water as a key risk to expansion of the sector, with projects increasingly constrained by a lack of water, too much water, or social opposition over impacts to water. Issues associated with water and mining are set to intensify. Average ore grades are declining such that, without technological change, future mining operations will require more water and energy to process and generate greater quantities of waste material. This chapter summarizes water and mining challenges as they relate to diverse stakeholders. The industry’s journey from Mine Water Management to Mine Water Stewardship is described, and key advances in mine water accounting and reporting practices are emphasized. An organizing framework is proposed to distinguish research needs across spatial scales and at different stages of the mine life cycle. There is a need for heightened attention to mine water issues as they relate to linked sites in mining regions, and during exploration and mine closure phases. Interdisciplinary thinking is required that considers how humans interact with both natural and engineered mine water systems.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Commodities considered: Bauxite, Chromite, Cobalt, Copper, Diamonds, Gold, Iron, Lead, Manganese, Molybdenum, Nickel, Palladium, Phosphate, Platinum, Potash, Rhodium, Silver, Tantalum, Tim, Titanium, Tungsten, Uranium, Zinc.

  2. 2.

    The Water Account, Australia, distinguishes water use from water consumption. Water consumption is defined as total water use (sum of distributed water use, self–extracted water use and reuse water use) less in–stream water use and distributed water supplied to other users.

Abbreviations

ARD:

Acid Rock Drainage

AWS:

Alliance for Water Stewardship

CEO:

Chief Executive Officer

CSRP:

Centre for Sustainable Resource Processing

FIFO:

Fly-In-Fly-Out

GIS:

Geographical Information System

GRI:

Global Reporting Initiative

GVA:

Gross Value Added

ICMM:

International Council on Mining and Metals

IFC:

International Finance Corporation

MCA:

Minerals Council of Australia

MCA-WAF:

Minerals Council of Australia Water Accounting Framework

NSW:

New South Wales

SMI:

Sustainable Minerals Institute

TDS:

Total Dissolved Solids

TSF:

Tailings Storage Facility

WAF:

Water Accounting Framework

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

    Nadja C. Kunz

  2. Norman B Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

    Nadja C. Kunz

  3. Curtin University, Perth, Australia

    Chris J. Moran

Authors
  1. Nadja C. Kunz
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  2. Chris J. Moran
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nadja C. Kunz .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Development Research, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Janos J. Bogardi

  2. University of Amsterdam and IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education, Delft, The Netherlands

    Joyeeta Gupta

  3. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

    K. D. Wasantha Nandalal

  4. Lawyer, Conflict Resolution Specialist, Paris, France

    Léna Salamé

  5. Department of Water Management, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Ronald R.P. van Nooijen

  6. Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Navneet Kumar

  7. Water Engineering and Management, Asian Institute of Technology, Pathum thani, Thailand

    Tawatchai Tingsanchali

  8. Sustainable Water Future Programme, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

    Anik Bhaduri

  9. Delft Center for Systems and Control, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Alla G. Kolechkina

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Kunz, N.C., Moran, C.J. (2021). Water Management and Stewardship in Mining Regions. In: Bogardi, J.J., et al. Handbook of Water Resources Management: Discourses, Concepts and Examples. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60147-8_21

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