Europe, Lithium’s green potential

“Lithium and rare earths will soon be more important than oil and gas”, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said last September.

The Commission chief pronounced these words as Europe was reeling from an energy crisis accelerated by Russia’ war in Ukraine and which led to the bloc pledging to wean itself off fossil fuels — most of which it has traditionally supplied from Russia — and accelerate its transition towards “homegrown” renewables and other green tech.

These, however, rely on so-called rare earths which are needed to produce everything from the latest generation batteries to the materials needed to manufacture photovoltaic panels.

Why are new mines so hard to open?

New mines currently take decades to get approved, due to fierce opposition by local people and politicians who are concerned about environmental and social consequences.

An example of this is the Norra Kärr rare earth element project in southern Sweden. Despite this deposit being found in 2009 and a 25-year mining licence being granted in 2013, no metals have been extracted.

The licence granting led to large protests over environmental concerns and the extraction licence was overturned in 2016 and a mine leasing application was rejected in 2021.

Speaking about the environmental impact of hard-rock mining, Dr Simon Jowitt, an economic geologist and associate professor at UNLV Department of Geoscience said: “There’s always a certain potential impact on the environment, on ground and service water.”

“Every mine is a little different in terms of that potential, but there’s always some. There’s also the risk posed by dust from mines.”

Most lithium is extracted by one of two methods: solar evaporation and hard-rock mining.

The biggest concerns with this form of extracting lithium are its high water usage, possible depletion of groundwater levels, and the waste salt which is left behind. Approximately 2.2 million litres of water is needed to produce one tonne of lithium using this method.

The other most common way of extracting this precious metal is through more traditional hard-rock mining, typically using opencast pits.

Not only are such pits an eyesore, but dust from such mines can also spread to surrounding areas sparking health and environmental concerns. Furthermore, the processing of the mined material can also use significant amounts of water.

However, it is important to put the risks involved in precious metal mining in the context of the benefit they bring from reducing fossil fuel extraction.

Higher prices enabling more complicated extractions

Increased demand for batteries — it is set to explode 14-fold between 2020 to 2030 — has pushed up the demand and price of lithium from about $20,000 per tonne five years ago to $80,000 per tonne last November and driven innovation into new, more expensive, mining methods that mitigate possible impacts on the environment.

An example of this is the proposed San José de Valdeflórez lithium mine in Spain’s Western province of Extremadura.

Originally proposed as an open-pit mine less than a kilometre away from the UNESCO mediaeval city of Cáceres and a natural reserve, the project faced fierce opposition from all quarters.

However, Extremadura New Energies (ENE), the Spanish subsidiary of Infinity Lithium, is now planning on building the mine completely underground with the entrance of the mine being located 2 km away from the city.

The material will also be crushed inside the enclosed mine, cutting the risk of dust pollution.

It has also unveiled plans to use patented technology which means the mine will not have to use sulfuric acid for lithium extraction, resulting in a zero-flow discharge mine. This dramatically reduces the risk of contaminating surrounding land water sources.

Additionally, the vehicles and mining operations will be powered by renewable energy, including from a new green hydrogen plant.

However, these mitigation methods were only introduced following objections by local people and authorities – highlighting the importance of local engagement in improving lithium mining.

Furthermore, although the deliberations and debates over the San José de Valdeflórez project resulted in a much-improved end project, it has been a long journey since it was first proposed in 2015.

Despite this, the project’s environmental impact has never been approved or evaluated. The company is currently seeking approval for an exploration permit and hopes to submit the project for environmental evaluation by April this year.

A local protest group, Salvemos la Montaña (Let’s Save the Mountain), has also gained significant support in its campaign against the project.

EU mining ambitions

The Commission wants Europe to build a more resilient supply chain to reduce its reliance on strategic competitors for imports and processing of rare metals.

In a document published last year, The Commission stated it could introduce targets into legislation, for example, that at least 30% of the EU’s demand for refined lithium should originate from the EU by 2030.

Another goal is to ensure that the time from the start of exploration work to a mine or a refining facility opening is reduced to a matter of years, not decades.

To do that, it plans “to facilitate the roll-out of targeted raw materials projects in the EU” and for the Commission to be empowered to “list Strategic Projects – which would be labelled as of European interest – based on proposals from member states.”

Ramón Jiménez, CEO of ENE told Euronews he certainly believes that “it is possible to make this process faster without reducing environmental or social impact reductions”.

He said that his San José de Valdeflórez project had enjoyed strong support from the central Spanish government. However, convincing central governments may be the easy part, convincing local residents will be key if the EU really wants to boost its mining output, Euronews writes.

More investments are needed to unlock Mongolia’s ‘huge potential

Resource-rich Mongolia is positioning itself as an alternative to China in supplying minerals used in the renewable energy sector but needs help from foreign investors to develop the necessary mining infrastructure, its deputy prime minster says.

“We will be one of the main players [in critical minerals], I’m sure, but it will take time,” Amarsaikhan Sainbuyan told Nikkei Asia while in London to celebrate 60 years of U.K.-Mongolian diplomatic relations. “The Mongolian government is open for all kinds of investments and partnerships.”

Minerals such as copper, nickel, lithium and cobalt are crucial for manufacturing battery-powered electric vehicles, as are rare-earth metals that largely come from China.

The National Geological Office of Mongolia had registered reserves of 61.4 million tons of copper and 3.1 million tons of rare-earth minerals as of July 2022. Last year, Southern Mongolia’s Oyu Tolgoi mine — one of the world’s largest known copper reserves — received approval to begin underground operations.

Sainbuyan said unlocking Mongolia’s “huge potential” to supply minerals crucial for the green transition would require help from foreign investors in developing environmentally friendly and energy-efficient mining technology.

“A country like Germany, or European or Western producers, they are interested in securing the raw materials, especially in critical mineral and rare-elements metals,” as they seek to reduce their dependence on China, he said. “We have to capitalize” on this interest.

Several high-level German visits have been planned to discuss cooperation on such matters, he said. Germany, a leading vehicle maker, has been eyeing Mongolia’s potential for over a decade, co-founding the German-Mongolian Institute for Resources and Technology.

When German Chancellor Olaf Scholz welcomed Mongolian Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai to Berlin last October, he said Mongolia would be “an important partner” for “many raw materials” in Germany’s diversification strategy but emphasized that concrete projects need to be identified.

Mining accounted for roughly a quarter of Mongolian GDP in 2021 and 29.6% of budget revenues, according to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. The pandemic slowed activity, but now is the time to “pick up,” Sainbuyan said.

Corruption allegations over coal exports to China by a state-owned enterprise led to demonstrations in December. Investigations are ongoing and several people have been arrested.

Sainbuyan said the government is committed to fighting corruption. “This is the main concern of the government, to reduce poverty and stop corruption,” he said.

Wedged between Russia to the north and China to the south, landlocked Mongolia faces limitations on export routes for coal — a factor that could also affect its ability to ship strategic minerals. Despite strong interest for coking coal from the likes of India, South Korea, Japan and Europe, China will remain its main coal market because of “limited access,” Sainbuyan said.

The government has been building and upgrading infrastructure to better connect the country, mainly through industrial railway links to China and Russia.

“Unfortunately, because of the geographical location, we have limited access and exit — either we have to go to Russia or to China and export,” Sainbuyan said, Nikkei reports.

Battle for Lithium

In the hunt for lithium and other crucial minerals for the electric car supply chain, the United States must compete not just with Chinese competitiveness and manufacturing capability, but also with internal Western limits.

While the US does not appear willing to significantly change their Inflation Reduction Act, which will guarantee nearly $400 billion in “green” subsidies to companies operating in the US over ten years, and while the EU is preparing a response that could include a mix of further easing of state aid and the creation of a “sovereign” fund made up of the residues of the Recovery Plan and little else, but without the coveted (by the Italians) Eurobonds, Consider the case of lithium.

The price of this essential mineral for electric vehicles has more than quadrupled to $75,000 per ton by the end of 2022. It is required to seek for new sources and build refineries to process them. All of this, in accordance with Washington’s approach, without relying on supplies from Beijing or any other “hostile” country. According to the Financial Times, the Biden administration has given the Australians of Ioneer a 700 million dollar conditional loan to establish a mine and processing complex in Nevada. Mining might begin in 2026, but supply contracts with Ford and Toyota have already been struck. Production may support roughly 400,000 electric automobiles per year.

The Inflation Reduction Act’s public financial support for the supply chain is based, above all, but not exclusively, on benefits of up to $7,500 for buyers of electric vehicles produced by companies that procure components and raw materials in the United States or in countries with which Washington trades under a free trade regime, defined not as a formal treaty but rather as “friendship” and partnership.

The administration then invoked the Defense Production Act, a law enacted during the Korean War to direct domestic production toward the war effort, and has so far distributed 2.8 billion to approximately twenty companies involved in the electric vehicle supply chain, as well as activated agreements with Canada, the EU, the United Kingdom, and Australia to invest in critical extractive projects.

In the hunt for lithium and other crucial minerals for the electric car supply chain, the United States must compete not just with Chinese competitiveness and manufacturing capability, but also with internal Western limits. Beijing is aggressively forging partnerships in Africa and Latin America to get minerals in less demanding regulatory environments for use in its home refineries. In reality, China owns 80% of the world’s lithium hydroxide processing capacity, a structural advantage that will be tough to overcome in a reasonable amount of time. It is also required to address the internal limits associated with the mining activity’s permission processes. This is an objective problem in the United States, relating to environmental impact assessments.

Nevada has just one operational lithium mine, and another is awaiting a court decision after a fight with conservation groups safeguarding a rare species of wildflower. A similar tragedy befell a mining project in North Carolina, which failed due to environmental limits, forcing Tesla to rely on Canadian supply. The expansion of the EV chain necessitates mining, which has an environmental effect, as well as the building of processing capacity for these minerals, which necessitates time, money, and administrative difficulties. In the battle between Americans and Chinese, the latter has an obvious edge, owing to the relatively minimal limits imposed by local territory on the establishment of extraction and processing systems.

Europe is in the middle. Which engages in extractive project funding but risks being undermined by the appeal of American environmental subsidies? At the World Economic Forum in Davos, the White House’s special envoy for climate, John Kerry, asked the EU to move quickly on its own version of the Inflation Reduction Act, in order to shorten the development timelines of the Western approach. Because, in Kerry’s words, “money, money, money” is required. Even on our continent, attempts to build lithium mining and processing factories face stiff opposition from local residents.

Examples include the $2.4 billion Serbian Jadar mine project, which Rio Tinto’s Anglo-Australians aimed to exploit but which ended up stalled by the resistance of local communities, which led to the revocation of the initial authorizations by the Serbian government. Or the cancellation of a mining project in Portugal, by government decision.

To these obvious critical issues, which demonstrate that Green Mining is not an oxymoron, is added the European Chemical Agency’s (ECHA) request to classify lithium salts as dangerous to human health and, as a result, subject their extraction and processing to a more stringent and onerous regulatory framework. This might swing the cost balance in favor of imports rather than domestic manufacturing, with all of the associated geopolitical risks. The EU will have to give answers to these crucial operational and budgetary challenges. Keeping in mind that if the new “sovereign wealth fund” is simply a repackaging of the Recovery Fund’s unspent leftovers, individual nations with fiscal ability will act alone, posing a relative danger to the integrity of the single market, Europeans 24 writes.

Europe, Can mining ever be green?

As France prepares to dig for lithium in its own backyard, part of the EU’s broader push to create strategic reserves of key raw materials needed for the green transition, activists worry about the environmental impact of mining

Lithium, Gallium, Magnesium, Indium, Niobium. Although these rare metals and minerals appear to belong to the same family, not all were created equal, at least in the eyes of industry.

The European Commission has listed 30 of them it deems strategic for the future of its ambitious green and digital transitions, but for whose supply Europe has become reliant on foreign countries over the years.

Called “critical raw materials” (CRMs), they fall under the European Union’s strategic autonomy agenda. The Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine served to highlight the EU’s dependencies on other nations for natural resources and reminded the bloc which states were in its corner, and which were not.

After concluding that China plays an outsized role in supplying the Europeans with these materials essential to electric car batteries, windmills and solar panels, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a new strategy in her State of the Union address, in September 2022: the EU will seek to diversify its trading partners through new agreements. It was also announced that, in early 2023, the Commission will present a regulation on CRMs to create strategic reserves of those materials on European soil.

Geologists have located critical raw materials across the continent. Finland, Sweden, Spain and Portugal, where deposits have been spotted, are eager to dig into the earth. Will the Europeans go back to the mines? Some countries, such as those in Scandinavia, have a long and ongoing tradition of mining, while others closed their last coal mines decades ago.

In any case, the issue worries environmental activists. The word “eco-mining” is on everyone’s lips in Brussels as well as in the Member States, and the concept should ostensibly help overcome obstacles to opening new mines.

In its consultation last October and November, the European Commission identified a lack of investment to create an EU supply and noted that permit procedures were long and complex. Opening a mine can take up to 15 years, between the exploration process to the extraction itself. Moreover, these projects are highly scrutinised, and the legislation in individual Member States remains demanding when it comes to exploiting their natural resources.

The consultation also pointed out the environmental risk. “We have to define our standards regarding responsible mining,” MEP Hildegard Bentele, the EPP rapporteur for the resolution adopted on CRMs by the European deputies in 2021, tells The Parliament. “Because a mine is always an intervention into nature. We should not be blurry about it.” Rather than “green” or “sustainable”, Bentele hopes for “responsible” mines: the impact on the environment will never be zero, but it is necessary to do everything in our power to minimise it.

The idea that a mine can be “responsible” is put forward by the French authorities and the companies which have recently announced lithium projects in several parts of the country. France, where mines are still taboo, has high ambitions for the production of this new “white gold” necessary for the batteries of future electric cars.

A boom in demand is expected after the ban on fossil fuel cars comes into force in 2035. In the Massif Central, in the centre of France, the French company Imerys has announced a vein capable of producing 34,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide per year, which translates into 700,000 batteries for future electric cars. It plans to start extracting in 2028.

In the Rhine basin, between France and Germany, several projects aim to extract lithium using geothermal technologies: hot salty water is pumped to the surface, from which operators extract the precious metal before reinjecting the water into the earth. The Australian company Vulcan Energy hopes to produce 50,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide annually starting in 2027. In the same area, some French companies have also successfully passed their first tests of lithium extraction from geothermal brines.

The zone could supply up to 30 per cent of Europe’s lithium needs. Not bad, considering Thierry Breton, the EU’s Commissioner for the Internal Market, has set the ambitious target of being “almost self-sufficient in lithium for our batteries by 2025”. But what is going to be the environmental impact of those mines?

Thierry Breton, the EU’s Commissioner for the Internal Market, has set the ambitious target of being “almost self-sufficient in lithium for our batteries by 2025”

In the Massif Central, even if the mine is underground, the industrial operator will still have to pump water to be able to work. And if it uses hydro-metallurgical separation techniques to extract lithium, large quantities of water will be required. The enterprise promises to recycle water, but with scant details on how often and how much.

At the Franco-German border, geothermal technologies also raise eyebrows among the locals. People are afraid of seismic tremors caused by the stress generated underground. Others wonder whether they may be affected by the high level of radioactivity concentrated a few kilometres away underneath their feet.

Even employing so-called “clean” technologies, the new mines don’t convince everyone. Judith Pigneur, an engineer from the French association négaWatt, has observed these new technologies carefully and as well as an outsider can, given that each company is still relatively hush-hush about its extraction process.

“In absolute terms, the environmental impact of CRMs’ exploitation will only increase because deposits will become less and less good and their contents will decrease [in number],” she explains. As a result, companies will have to dig deeper or be more aggressive in the extraction process.

At the European Parliament, the Greens are wrestling with the dilemma of how to ensure the green transition, which requires critical raw materials, while protecting the planet’s remaining resources. There must be some limits to mining in Europe, explains German MEP Henrike Hahn, shadow rapporteur for the European Parliament resolution in 2021: “Obviously, a protected area in Europe, like Natura 2000 [a network of protected areas], are off-limits for mining industries.”

And the recycling of CRMs must be developed and promoted by future EU regulation, with the objective of creating a market of secondary raw materials.

Of the many CRMs, lithium holds a special place. The projected need for batteries will be so huge that many people are uneasy about our ability to maintain stocks. Even those advocating for a reduced consumption of CRMs across the board agree on the importance of lithium. For them, the only hope is to be able to reduce demand in small, incremental ways, with the understanding that it will, in any case, remain high. “Are we going to use lithium for SUVs or for small cars?” wonders Pigneur, the engineer.

Creating reserves of critical raw materials with new mines in Europe will not be enough to meet tomorrow’s needs, no matter the geopolitical and economic urgency, and even with new extra-European trading partners. The CRMs will also have to give way to the 3Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle, Parliament Magazine writes.

Truth about EU’s “green mining”

As part of its Raw Materials Action Plan, the European Commission is striving to create the conditions for more mining in Europe by convincing the public that mining can be “green.” “Green mining” is an oxymoron that is gaining traction in the EU and pushes a risky narrative about an environmentally destructive sector. In northern Portugal, this battle of narratives takes centre stage.

Mining dominates, exploits and pollutes, suppressing other ways of living with the land. In low-income countries, it can be deadly. Activists, civil society and grassroots movements have been loud and clear about the dangers posed by the mining sector, yet few politicians seem to listen. In the European Union, the European Commission and mining operators are clearly aware of the issues. But unless your community has been targeted as the next mining project to supposedly meet the EU’s climate goals, you are probably not aware of how destructive mining can be.

Foolish

Last month, the Portuguese presidency of the EU organised a European conference on so-called green mining in Lisbon. Only one civil society organisation, the EEB, was invited to what had all the appearances of an industry convention rather than a green policy forum.

However, outside the venue, over a hundred activists from grassroots movements and citizens organisations protested the conference and the government-backed lithium mining projects in northern Portugal- despite COVID restrictions.

To gain the social license to operate, politicians and industry are challenging previous civil society backlashes against mining projects by equating mining with renewable technologies. Even raising concerns over the toxic fallout of continuous extractivism is deemed foolish. When communities fight for their right to decide their futures, they are labelled as suffering from a case of nimbyism. Portuguese Secretary of State for Energy, João Galamba even went so far as mentioning that “those who are against mines are against life.” This scramble to mine is about lucrative business and actually undermines the energy transition. New low-carbon infrastructure needs to be built to enable the move away from fossil fuels, which means money.

Lithium

Lithium, for example, is one of the most sought-after metals for low-carbon technologies and Europe is almost 100 percent dependent on battery-grade lithium from third countries, especially Chile. An often-cited figure is that, by 2030, under ‘business as usual’, Europe will need around 18 times more lithium and up to 60 times more by 2050. Therefore, to make the switch to renewable technologies and be competitive, Europe wants to scale up supply to avoid bottlenecks, right in its own backyard. But this strategy comes with serious concerns. The mountainous Barroso region, for example, sits on Western Europe’s largest lithium deposits but is also located 400 metres from the Covas do Barroso community, in the municipality of Boticas. Even the Boticas mayor, Fernando Queiroga has spoken openly against the project over pollution, water and environmental worries. He also fears the negative impact it would have on the region’s agricultural, gastronomy and rural tourism sectors. According to Savannah Resources, the mining operator behind the Minas Do Barroso, the mine would generate €1.3 billion of revenue over its 15-to-20-year lifetime.

Overconsumption

In terms of helping the EU meet its demand, the project would only provide 5 to 6 percent of Europe’s projected lithium requirement in 2030. A study conducted by the University of Minho for Savannah Resources found that the lithium output of this mine would be “insufficient to meet the demand for lithium derivatives for the production of batteries in Europe”. This region is one of only seven in Europe to make the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s  list of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems. Communities here use “very few surpluses where]the level of consumption of the population is relatively low compared to other regions in the country” as the FAO’s website indicates. In the age of overconsumption driving the ecological crisis, it is ironic that low-impact communities are targeted for green growth pursuits. If the Mina do Barroso project is allowed to proceed, the region’s proud agricultural heritage would be undermined and would surely lose its international recognition.

Frenzy

With 30 million additional electric vehicles planned to hit Europe’s roads by 2030, it should come as no surprise that communities on the ground do not want their land to become the next sacrifice zone to feed the EV frenzy. In Europe, there are three other proposed mining projects where environmental concerns have also been raised, including in Caceres, Spain. The Iberian Peninsula is a major target for mining companies. In Spain, there are around 2,000 potential licenses for new mining projects. In the case of Portugal, 10 percent of the country’s territory is already under mining concessions. In the northern Portuguese regions, the situation is troubling amid concerns that open-pit mines may even be allowed near protected areas, as in the case of Serra d’Arga. The Mina do Barroso project is now undergoing public consultation for the environmental impact assessment. Despite government and industry rhetoric that public participation will be respected, and the needs of local communities will be met, local organisations and activists are not convinced. In January 2021, an NGO submitted an environmental information request to the Portuguese environment ministry, but no access was granted.

Denial

The same request was sent in March to Savannah Resources, but the company also refused. Although the Commission for Access to Administrative Documents (CADA) issued a report stating that the environmental information that had been requested should be made immediately available, the Portuguese authorities decided to ignore the request. Only some documents were made available during the public consultations and nearly three weeks after the consultations started. The lack of access to information kept civil society and local communities in the dark and they lost around 3 precious months. For the past month, they have had to scrutinise more than 6,000 documents. A formal complaint was submitted in the context of the Aarhus Convention, which protects the right of access to environmental information, over claims of deliberate denial of access to information.

Courts

The case is already before the Portuguese courts and the public prosecutor. The end of the public consultation period for the EIA was to end on June 2nd, the same day of the launch of the Yes to Life, No to Mining joint position statement to the European Commission, but public pressure over irregularities forced the Portuguese authorities to extend the consultation period to July 16th. Green mining relates to the belief that we can decouple economic growth from environmental impacts, however, this mindset ignores a larger issue and will ultimately have irreversible consequences on the environment. Perhaps instead of putting such emphasis on the supply of lithium or other raw materials, we can take a look at the demand. For example, by prioritising circularity over primary resource extraction, we can greatly reduce our need to mine more resources. Political action to limit global warming is necessary and urgent. This means that we need to find the quickest paths to decarbonisation. But we must do it in less materially intensive ways. We can build cities that are less car-dependent, increase public transport, promote walking or enhance micro e-mobility. Cycling, for example, is ten times more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities. Other solutions include urban mining initiatives that move us toward more circular societies. In an inspiring example from Antwerp, 70 creative makers gather the waste from the city and turn them into a wide variety of products: lamps from old boilers and chairs from paper and sawdust for a whole jazz club.

Solutions

The solutions exist, we just need the political will.

By making the most of the resources we have, European cities can greatly reduce the impact that they create for European rural communities and in low-income countries where most of the mining projects are slated to take place.

However, broader policy measures are also needed. For starters, the EU should agree on creating a headline target to cut its material footprint and continue to promote measures on targeting energy efficiency, recycling, material substitution, use of innovative materials, and the promotion of sustainable lifestyles.

Another way to do this is to look at the energy transition through an environmental justice lens. Granting communities, the right to say no to mining projects by taking inspiration from already enshrined protocols in international law as in the case of Free, Prior and Informed Consent for Indigenous Peoples, the brunt of the energy transition will not have to be put on low-impact communities around the world. This can address the current imbalance of power between mining companies, governments and communities and the future EU horizontal due diligence law can offer such opportunity. Banning mining projects from taking place within or near protected areas is a necessary step forward.

Living

So can mining ever be green? Maybe that is not the right question. We should instead ask, how do we change the way our societies operate? How can we create well-being economies? Or perhaps more ambitiously, how do we move away from the need to grow the economy? Only then can we figure out how much we need to mine. After all, decent living does not have to, and must not, cost us the earth.

Source: theecologist.org

Zijin Copper in Serbia wants to be an example of green mining

The filtration system has already been put into operation at the Serbia Zijin Copper mine, which returns 95 percent of the process water back to flotation, and in the field of environmental protection, numerous works have been done regarding afforestation and greening of mining areas, it is stated in the announcement. The company Serbia Zijin Copper announced that the working group of the Government of Serbia for the supervision of all potential polluters of the river Pek determined that Zijin fulfilled all the requirements of the inspection team on time.

“It was stated that Serbia Zijin Copper has implemented the necessary measures to increase the efficiency of water treatment in the Majdanpek mine, but also that the company is taking other measures to reduce the impact of its activities on the environment and step by step solve the accumulated inherited problems in this area,” it is stated in the announcement.
The project that was not part of the ordered measures was praised, and it refers to the return of 95% of process water from filtration to the flotation plant of the Majdanpek mine, they say in Zijin.
The working group of the Government of Serbia for the supervision of all potential pollutants of the Pek River and the inspection team checked the day before the deadline (April 29) whether the Majdanpek Copper Mine met all requirements related to eliminating the impact on water quality in the river.
“The working group, which included, among others, Assistant Minister of Mining and Energy Dejan Milijanovic, Assistant Minister of Environmental Protection Dejan Furjanovic, as well as mining, water and environmental inspector, was convinced that the Majdanpek mine did everything for consistent implementation of the imposed measures,” they say in Zijin.

The company, as stated, cleaned the existing sedimentation tanks for receiving atmospheric water and built new ones for the mechanical treatment of waste, muddy water, as well as for the laundry of heavy and other vehicles.
Although it was not the obligation of the company, the bed of the river Mali Pek was cleaned from the material that had been deposited for decades, in the part that is not in the mining zone, in the length of almost 300 meters. The company also accepted the obligation to build another additional sedimentation tank, as suggested during the control supervision, and it also undertook the obligation to regularly examine and keep a diary on the quality of wastewater.
Assistant Minister of Mining and Energy Dejan Milijanovic expressed satisfaction that Zijin and the Ministry of Mining and Energy are “on the same path” when it comes to environmental protection:
“We want Serbia Zijin Copper to be an example that mining in Serbia can be green, because that is the basic meaning of progress when it comes to this industry. Not mining at any cost, but one that can be sustainable and that must be green and in accordance with the laws of nature and the laws of environmental protection,” Milijanovic emphasized.
Representatives of the Working Group indicated their more frequent presence in this environment and active monitoring of potential polluters of the Pek River, all with the aim of achieving zero pollution.

Representatives of Zijin stated that they will strictly implement the ordered measures of the inspection team, but also that they will continuously work in the field of environmental protection. The problems of the historical heritage will, as promised, be solved step by step until the final idea “that the waters be clearer and the mountains greener”. Work will be done according to the standards of improving the environment to the “green mine” and the plan for the mine to later become a garden, and mining a green industry.

Source: rtv.rs

Russia`s Nornickel will go green

Earlier it was reported that the Russian “Norilsk Nickel”, the world’s largest producer of nickel and palladium, closed a metallurgical plant in the city of Nikel in northern Russia. Kola is a subsidiary of Norilsk Nickel on the Kola Peninsula with mines and processing plants and pellets in Zapolyarny, as well as metallurgical plants in Monchegorsk and a plant in Nikel, closed on December 23, 2020.

Russian mining giant Norilsk Nickel is modernizing production and will soon become a “green” company, said the largest shareholder of the mining company, businessman Vladimir Potanin.

This will be the largest contributor to emission reductions in Northern Europe. Potanin believes that the company is doing a great job to modernize production, reduce harmful emissions and comply with environmental standards. He explained that Norilsk Nickel is the main supplier of products for the green economy: batteries, accumulators, catalysts and other products. At the same time, the company itself also operates in an environmentally responsible manner, Potanin explained. In recent years, environmentalists have been influencing all companies – not only Norilsk Nickel. It is becoming less and less acceptable to produce products that do not meet high environmental standards and, in general, what is called sustainable development. These include carbon footprint, labour safety, working conditions, and environmental standards.

“We belong to the category of people who care about criticism, who listen to this criticism, especially in its constructive part, and therefore, of course, we wanted to make such – well, a business card of our company, to demonstrate that we are not just talking about that we will be a green company some time, but right here and now to do and show something,” Potanin said.

“For me, of course, the image is important, as they say, internationally, and it is important for me both my own image component and the fact that without a good reputation the company simply will not be able to sell its products after a while, that is will cause financial and economic damage to the company. Therefore, here both of these motives are combined, but at the same time – I think that the Norwegian neighbours will not be offended by me if I say that this project is primarily aimed at residents of the regions of our country”, noted the businessman.

As part of a comprehensive modernization program, the metallurgical shop of the Kola MMC (a subsidiary of Norilsk Nickel) will undergo a major overhaul, which will minimize the company’s impact on the environment. The company’s strategic goal is to reduce SO2 emissions at both Kola facilities by 85% in 2021 compared to 2015 when emissions amounted to 155.0 thousand tons per year, the Russian giant reported earlier.

Source: helsinkitimes.fi