Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.17794/rgn.2022.4.8
INTRODUCING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND REVIEWING ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY IN THE MINING INDUSTRY
Ali Nouri Qarahasanlou
orcid.org/0000-0003-1302-7176
; Assistant professor, Faculty of Technical and Engineering, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran
Dina Khanzadeh
orcid.org/0000-0001-6691-6394
; BSc student, Faculty of Technical and Engineering, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran
Reza Shakoor Shahabi
orcid.org/0000-0003-2263-4410
; Assistant professor, Engineering Faculty, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran
Mohammad Hosein Basiri
; Assistant Professor, Engineering Faculty, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
A comprehensive systemic approach is needed to make effective decisions for global sustainability. The system’s points of view introduced sustainable development (S.D.) and sustainability in prior years. Sustainable development is expressed as a desire followed by humanity to live in a better condition considering all the limits that nature could have. Social, environmental, and economic responsibilities are the wide-ranging developmental characteristics that form sustainability. In this paper, with the help of search engines like Scopus and Web of Science, several documents related to environmental sustainability in the mining industry were studied. The principal investigated problems were tailings dam failure, forestland use in mining operations, social and environmental issues in crushed stone mining industries, landfill mining challenges, climatic problems, economic problems, and fatalities in artisanal and small-scale mines. Also, a table was designed to categorise these problems and determine the solution and primary goal. This study investigates the severity of mining operation conditions and environmental issues in this industry. The common environmental problems in the mining industry include soil degradation, deforestation, land subsidence, acid mine drainage, waste production, natural landscape destruction, coal production, carbon footprint, dust pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and climatic problems. To have a more sustainable mining industry, all the mining stages, from the exploration to the post-closure stages, must minimise resource and energy consumption and waste products.
Keywords
sustainable development; sustainability; environmental issues; mining industry
Hrčak ID:
281533
URI
Publication date:
24.8.2022.
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