Ecological footprint and total material requirement as environmental indicators of mining activities: Case studies of copper mines

Abstract

The production of mineral resources negatively affects the natural environment, which is a topic of urgent discussion in sustainable natural resource use/management. In this study, we explored appropriate environmental indicators of mining activities that might be easy to account for and deemed suitable as a first-order estimation of overall environmental impacts. We distinguish the differential impact between operations rather than providing a strictly estimated integrated single indicator value. Considering the increasing interests in land use change and associated impacts, ecological footprint (EF) was chosen as first indicator, and Total Material Requirement (TMR) was also chosen to complement EF. Both the operational and remote-sensing based satellite data were used in this study by using three copper mines as case studies. The results propose that EF for built-up land works well by showing above the ground impacts for mining activities and TMR complements EF with its ability to reflect the underground activities.

Keywords

• Environmental indicators for mining
• Land use change
• Ecological footprint (EF)
• Total material requirement (TMR)
• Life cycle assessment (LCA)
• Copper