The mining industry is trying very hard to turn its ‘green’ image around and leading the charge is the Canadian Mining Association. But is enviro-friendly mining really possible? 

The catalogue of environmental disasters caused by the mining industry is too long to list, but includes gold mining’s release into the environment of thousands of tonnes of toxic mercury and cyanide, the razing of entire mountains in the name of coal, and a legacy of highly acidic lakes and poisoned river systems as a result of copper extraction, and here in South Africa visually, Joburgs many mine ‘dumps’ are a stark reminder of our mining history.

The Mining Association of Canada (MAC) is doing its utmost to convince the public that "sustainable mining" is not an oxymoron. Unfortunately, they’re battling a long and dirty history, one fraught with environmental devastation and social indifference.

In 2004, MAC began implementing a program called "Towards Sustainable Mining", a call to action for mining companies to act in a more socially and environmentally responsible manner. While critics put this initiative down to another case of corporate green-wash, its very existence is a startling milestone for this industry. By all accounts, mining practices in Canada have improved significantly in recent decades because of this and we should therefore be putting large pressure on South African mining companies to implement the same strategies.

Here in South Africa, Nedbank hosts the annual ‘green’ mining awards. The purpose of the awards is to honour African mining and mineral beneficiation operations that have made a significant effort to promote sustainability, either in terms of the integrated approach encapsulated in the concept, or the individual components.

Securing the accolade in the ‘environmental’ category this year was Anglo Platinum, for the Amandelbult Platinum mine’s environmental management system (EMS). The EMS has been in operation at the mine since 2000, and seeks to continually improve on its environmental risk identification and impact management. This has been extended to benefit communities beyond the mine boundaries.

But even with the best of intentions, is it possible for mining to ever really be sustainable? Can a company extract millions of tonnes of rock from the Earth and still manage to be a friend of the environment? And is it good enough to "contain" mining’s toxic by-products indefinitely, as current "green" mining companies do?

According to MiningWatch Canada, a national non-profit based in Ottawa, the answer appears to be No. "A good mining company," states their website, "is … more interested in conserving and recycling minerals than in digging up new ones. It seeks alternatives to mining, not its expansion." In other words, a "good mining company" appears to be one that isn’t involved in mining at all; it appears to be one that is actually a recycling company.

While this may be bitter news, it has the ring of truth from an environmental perspective. The amount of extractable minerals on this planet is finite, and therefore every tonne of copper pulled from the ground is one less tonne available for future generations. Given that MAC’s own definition of sustainability includes "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs," it would seem that sustainable mining is, strictly speaking, impossible to achieve on a finite planet.

Another problem with the whole sustainable mining debate has to do with secrecy in reporting toxic mining waste. Mining companies have not been accurately reporting the amounts being dumped into the environment leaving South African’s in the dark about the real impact the mining is having.

While sustainable mining looks good on paper, the industry has a way to go before it can be considered even remotely green. However with continued pressure more mining companies will hopefully begin to follow the Canadian Associations example and improve on their start.