Challenges Facing Mine Development

Recently, a number of mine development projects have been setback by social, economic and, environmental circumstances that had not been seen before. Many of these problems do not always originate from direct mine pollution. Typical examples of these are· conflicts between the exploration company and the local residents, sudden objections just before the development is to begin, and unexpected tightening of environmental regulations. The common background to these problems is expanding global environmental awareness. This includes complex factors ·such as the expansion of exploration to remote regions, the brisk activities of environmental NGOs, the increase of international environmental laws and, governmental policy changes. Today, the range of issues concerning mine development is widening significantly. The participation of local residents arid NGOs in the development planning, together with the company and government, has become essential for smoothly carrying out mine projects and making them more beneficial for stakeholders. Introduction The common image of the environmental problem with respect to mining is direct mine pollution, such as the collapse of tailings dams, pollution from refineries, and acid mine drainage. All over the world, the mining industry has made large investments in capital and technology to solve and prevent mine pollution, and these efforts have been making steady achievements. However in recent years, new cypes of environmental problems which are not originating directly from mine pollution are emerging frequently. Most of the problems are concentrated at the exploration stage to early stage of development, which have less impact on the environment. In the worst case, mining project may be forced to cancel and could cause serious damage to the industry because they could not collect their investment. I would like to take a general view of the examples of new types of trouble, their characters, background, and strategies against these problems.