Can mining be sustainable?

Two main pre-conditions for achieving sustainability are good governance and

self-regulating mining enterprises

By Samar Lahiry

India is richly endowed with many minerals. The minerals are basic and
strategic materials for industrial and economic development. In mining, the
possibilities of adverse effects on the environment are quite high if the adverse
effects are not contained or reduced to minimum. The negative impact of mining
could be controlled through the application of the concept and principles of
sustainable development to mining operations. Sustainable mining is crucial for the
promotion of inclusive growth.
The Indian mineral industry comprises of large and small mines, that function
under public, private sector and informal sectors covering most minor minerals
being extracted. The public sector continues to play a dominant role in production
of various minerals (coal, lignite, petroleum, iron and steel, bauxite and
aluminium). As per the Constitution, development and regulation of mines and
minerals is controlled by the Union government. The Mine and Minerals
(Development and Regulation) Act 1957 was amended in 2015, to add the
provision for a simple and transparent mechanism for granting mining lease or
prospecting licence through competitive bidding besides assured tenure and easy
transferability of mineral concession granted through auction, strict penalty
provision to deter illegal mining.

The total value of country’s mineral production (excluding atomic minerals) during
2015-16 has been estimated at Rs 2,68,955 crores, after a decrease of about 5.05
per cent over the previous year.

Sustainability in mining sector

The most important environmental requirement for a mining project is a

comprehensive environment assessment (EIA) programme, which was started in
1994. However, laws and regulatory instruments work unsatisfactorily due to weak
enforcement and inadequate coordination among government agencies. Although
mining enterprises tend to meet the legal requirement of preparing mine closure
plans, implementation falls short. Local communities are not consulted in the
preparation and implementation of mine closure plans.

A large number of small mines (including quarries for extracting minor minerals)
operate in most states. These present difficult challenges for sustainable
development as their financial, technical and managerial limitations restrict their
ability to take effective corrective measures against the negative impacts of
mining.

Major mining companies use advanced, adopt comprehensive environment

protection measures, sensitise their personnel on sustainability issues and
progressively try to improve their environmental performance. There are other
large, medium and even small enterprises whose environment obligation consists
in strictly conforming to the prescribed legal provisions. In case of illegal mining,
these niceties are not observed. It is reported that the illegal sand mining is largely
responsible for the environmental degradation especially the river beds of Ganga
and Yamuna rivers. Lack of checks and political interference has turned the
situation grim. Even legal mines flout norms and damage the environment.

Two main pre-conditions for achieving sustainability are good governance and
self-regulating mining enterprises which are economically viable, financially
profitable and technically efficient. Sustainability principles have application for
all stages of mine life cycle – exploration, mine planning, construction, mineral
extraction, mine closure and post-closure reclamation and rehabilitation. These
principles include elements such as intra and inter-generational equity, the
precautionary principle, scientific mining, management of environmental and
socio-economic impacts, creation of substitute capital in the form of social and
physical infrastructure and stakeholder engagement.

A Planning Commission report titled “Sustainable Development, Emerging

issues in India’s mineral sector” observed that in the mineral-rich states of
Odisha, Goa, Karnataka and Jharkhand, mining has brought about economic
development. At the same time, it has caused significant environmental damages
and negatively impacted communities in project areas. To that extent the mining
and environmental laws and regulations have not been very effective.
In some cases, mining operations have been carried out without concerning for the
‘carrying capacity’ of the environment and other infrastructural limitations. This
has put avoidable pressure on the environment and caused inconveniences to the
people living in the mining areas. Illegal mining in many cases has similar effect
while additionally causing loss of public revenues.

Sustainability has assumed considerable importance in major mining nations like

Canada, Australia, South Africa and Papua New Guinea. These countries take a
comprehensive view of sustainable development in mining that includes apart from
environment, other important dimensions such as local stakeholder engagement,
socio-economic development in mining project areas and transparency in
communication with stakeholders. In India, major mining companies have set up
foundations to take up socio-economic development projects in their mining areas.
In developed mining nations all regulatory mining and environmental laws meant
to lessen the impact of mining are strictly implemented. These include provisions
for mine closure and associated reclamation and rehabilitation of mined land.

The way ahead

Both the government and industry need to take a comprehensive view of

sustainable development that should cover dimensions other than environment,
such as stakeholder engagement and consultations, local area socio-economic
development and transparency in communication and accountability. Preparation
of a socio-economic assessment report for a mining project should be made a part
of the permitting process for the grant and administration of mineral concession to
a mining enterprise. Local socio-economic development works should preferably
be executed by mining enterprises rather than government and semi-government
agencies to avoid the problems of inadequate capacity, political manipulation and
corruption.
In order to alleviate the limitations of small mines in carrying out sustainable
development activities, consortia of small mining enterprises in a region should be
promoted. Technical advisory services should be made available to them in the
relevant areas. Mineral development in a region should be carried out within its
available social and environmental “carrying capacity” and infrastructural facilities
at a given point of time.

en: A Clean, Fe
 Hydrogen: A Clean, Flexible Energy Carrier

Hydrogen is the simplest and most abundant element on earth—it consists of only
one proton and one electron. Hydrogen can store and deliver usable energy, but it
doesn't typically exist by itself in nature and must be produced from compounds
that contain it.

Sources of Energy

Hydrogen can be produced from diverse, domestic resources. Currently, most

hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels, specifically natural gas. Electricity—from
the grid or from renewable sources such as biomass, geothermal, solar, or wind—is
also currently used to produce hydrogen. In the longer term, solar energy and
biomass can be used more directly to generate hydrogen as new technologies make
alternative production methods cost competitive.

Production Pathways

Most hydrogen can also be produced through steam methane reforming, a high-
temperature process in which steam reacts with a hydrocarbon fuel to produce
hydrogen.

Another common hydrogen production method takes water, and separates the
molecule H2O into oxygen and hydrogen through a process called electrolysis.
Electrolysis takes place in an electrolyzer, which functions much like a fuel cell in
reverse—instead of using the energy of a hydrogen molecule, like a fuel cell does,
an electrolyzer produces hydrogen from water molecules.

Biological processes can also produce hydrogen through biological reactions using
microbes such as bacteria and microalgae. In these processes, microbes consume
plant material and produce hydrogen gas.

There are many ways to produce hydrogen using sunlight, including

photobiological, photoelectrochemical, photovoltaic-driven electrolysis, and solar
thermochemical processes.

Energy Carrier

Hydrogen is an energy carrier, not an energy source and can deliver or store a
tremendous amount of energy. Hydrogen can be used in fuel cells to generate
electricity, or power and heat. Today, hydrogen is most commonly used in
 petroleum refining and fertilizer production, while transportation and utilities are
emerging markets.

Uses for Hydrogen

Hydrogen is a clean fuel that, when consumed in a fuel cell, produces only water,
electricity, and heat. Hydrogen and fuel cells can play an important role in our
national energy strategy, with the potential for use in a broad range of applications,
across virtually all sectors—transportation, commercial, industrial, residential, and
portable. Hydrogen and fuel cells can provide energy for use in diverse
applications, including distributed or combined-heat-and-power; backup power;
systems for storing and enabling renewable energy; portable power; auxiliary
power for trucks, aircraft, rail, and ships; specialty vehicles such as forklifts; and
passenger and freight vehicles including cars, trucks, and buses.

Due to their high efficiency and zero-or near zero-emissions operation, hydrogen
and fuel cells have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emission in many
applications. Energy Department-funded analysis has shown that hydrogen and
fuel cells have the potential to achieve the following reductions in emissions:

 Light-duty highway vehicles: more than 50% to more than 90% reduction in
emissions over today’s gasoline vehicles.
 Specialty vehicles: more than 35% reduction in emissions over current diesel
and battery-powered lift trucks.
 Transit buses: demonstrated fuel economies of approximately 1.5 times
greater than diesel internal combustion engine (ICE) buses and approximately 2
times higher than natural gas ICE buses.
 Auxiliary power units (APUs): more than 60% reduction in emissions
compared to truck engine idling.
 Combined heat and power (CHP) systems: 35% to more than 50% reduction
in emissions over conventional heat and power sources (with much greater
reductions—more than 80%—if biogas or hydrogen from low- or zero-carbon
sources is used in the fuel cell)

The greatest challenge for hydrogen production, particularly from renewable

resources, is providing hydrogen at lower cost. For transportation fuel cells,
hydrogen must be cost-competitive with conventional fuels and technologies on a
per-mile basis. This means that the cost of hydrogen—regardless of the production
technology—must be less than $4/ gallon gasoline equivalent. To reduce overall
hydrogen cost, research is focused on improving the efficiency and lifetime of
hydrogen production technologies as well as reducing the cost of capital
equipment, operations, and maintenance.