EuroMining 2013 – Green Mining Seminar
Canada’s Green Mining Initiative
Janice Zinck
September 12, 2013

 Mining is a national industry in Canada, with a rich history of growth that parallels that of the country
 Presence in all but one of the 13 provinces and territories
 Employs 320,000
Canadians
 Contributes $35.6B to the GDP

 A science-based department with the mandate to create a sustainable resource advantage (minerals, energy, forestry, water, etc.) for Canadians
 It’s role is to help bring together the strengths of all
Canada’s natural resources assets to achieve three strategic outcomes for Canadians:
 Canada’s natural resource sectors are globally competitive
 Natural resources sectors and consumers are environmentally responsible
 Canadians have information to manage their lands and natural resources, and are protected from related risks

 Technical Challenges
 Decline in discovery rate, mineral reserves and ore grade
 Accessing unconventional mineral deposits
 New mineral deposits in challenging / hostile environments
 Processing complexity
 Rare earth elements, invisible gold

Economic and Environmental Challenges
 Public demand for more comprehensive environmental assessment process while pressure from industry to streamline
 Sustaining and enhancing the environmental performance and image of the industry
 Meeting regulatory standards for GHG emissions, air pollutants, and effluents
 Responding to the impacts of climate change
 Growing demand for skills

 Collaborate for success
 Join forces with industry and academia to address pressing needs
 Work in partnership to remove barriers to adoption
 Tap-in into cross-sectoral expertise
 Ensure alignment with government and industry priorities for relevance
 Focus on technology transfer and implementation to translate R&D work into innovation
Technology Maturity S-Curve
Implementation
Pilot
Research
CanmetMINING
Time

 Launched in 2009 to respond to pressing challenges:
 Addressing public concerns on the environmental footprint of mining
 Enhancing productivity and innovation of Canadian mining sector as it faces stiff international competition
 Meeting regulatory standards for GHG emissions, air pollutants, and water effluents
 Improving the performance and image of the industry to earn a social licence to operate
GMI Vision: Mining leaves behind only clean water, rehabilitated landscapes and healthy ecosystems

Technology innovation curve
Research
$9.2M
Leveraging
$6M
Pilot
$4.9M
Leveraging
$4.2M
NRCan
Contribution
$3.2M
NRCan
Contribution
$0.7M
Time
Leverage ratio – 6:1
Implementation
$41.1M
Leveraging
$37M
NRCan
Contribution
$4.1M

 Objectives:
 Sustain an environmentally responsible mining sector in
Canada
 Contribute to an economicallycompetitive Canadian mining sector
 Accelerate deployment of green mining technologies and practices in Canada
 Realize global market opportunities in green mining technologies and practices
Seven research priorities….

 Canada's North is rich in mineral wealth but development of these resources requires a unique set of technologies than those applied in warmer climates to ensure protection of the fragile northern ecosystem
 This priority area would focus on the development of better mining, treatment and waste management technologies for the North
 Objective
 Research and development for responsible northern resource development

5-Year Outcomes
 Improved environmental performance for mines in the North
 Aboriginal communities are enabled to make informed decisions regarding mineral development on their land,
 Protection of Northern ecosystems potentially impacted by mineral development
Flagship Projects
 Mine waste management in the North under a changing climate
 Ecosystem protection and remediation of northern contaminated sites
 Mine design for the North
Technologies Under Development
 Backfill technology for permafrost conditions
 Mine water treatment processes for cold climates
 Insitu arsenic trioxide stabilization

 The supply of rare earth and critical metals is both a national and international issue
 Canada has exploitable deposits of critical metals however processing of these deposits remains the fundamental challenge in ensuring a sustainable Canadian supply
 Objective
 Development and adoption of green processing technologies for critical and strategic metals

5-Year Outcomes
 New market access for Canada
 Advanced and greener processing technologies for Canada - possible deployment internationally
 REE supply for Canadian producers
Flagship Projects
 Rare earth element processing
 Strategic and specialized metals research
 Bioleaching
Technologies Under Development
 Bioleaching of black shale for REE recovery
 Pyrrhotite bioleaching process
 Rare earth minerals concentration
 Ion implant reference material for REE
 Rare earth metals separation

 As ore grades and reserves continue to decline it necessary to access deeper deposits
 Reducing the technological risk affords access to deep Canadian high grade mineral resources and greatly contributes to the reduction of the mine site footprint
 Objective
 To reduce the risk for mining extraction in deep mines or weak rock masses

5-Year Outcomes
 Uptake of EFRB (explosive-free rock breakage) technology at least one narrow vein mine
 Cost effective extraction in otherwise uneconomical deep deposits
Flagship Projects
 Mitigating risks for mining at increasing depth
 Improving & progressing the underground mining process
Technologies Under Development
 Hoisting steel cable monitoring
 Residual recovery from mine processing mud (dewatering) Plasma torch
 Continuous ore handling design

 Energy is a significant and complex issue for the mining industry
 Both mining extraction and milling have significant energy demands
 Reduction in energy usage will improve competitiveness and reduce environmental impacts
 Objective
 Development of technologies to
Reduce energy requirements, lower GHGs, cleaner emissions

5-Year Outcomes
 Adoption of zero-emission vehicles in Canadian mines
 Mine wide implementation of VOD system
 Diesel non longer prime ventilation design parameter
 Energy consumption in milling process is reduced
 GHG emissions from mining sector are lower compared to baseline
 Operating costs and energy consumption are reduced
Flagship Projects
 Technologies for improving mining efficiency & energy usage
 Energy efficient rock breakage
Technologies Under Development
 Ventilation-on-Demand / Ventilation-for-Production
 Green mining vehicles
 On-line ore sensor to reduce energy consumption

 The Canada 'brand' in environmental management is recognized internationally
 To build on these best practices this research area will develop, improve, evaluate and demonstrate technologies for environmental stewardship
 Objectives
 Best practices for environmental management, waste and reclamation are developed and adopted in Canada and transferred internationally

5-Year Outcomes
 Best practices for mining environmental management transferred and adopted, environmental assessment process streamlined
 Stakeholders are equipped to make informed decisions regarding mining environmental management
 Ecosystems and communities are protected, environmental liabilities are reduced
Flagship Projects
 Biological recovery of water cover basins
 Reclamation for secondary land use
 MEND, NOAMI
Technologies Under Development
 Alternative Binder Technology
 Non-intrusive seismic monitoring for well casings
 Reclamation using organic wastes and biochar

 Water use and quality is an issue all aspects of the mining cycle from mining and milling, through to discharge to the environment
 This priority area will address water usage in mining and milling through recycling and removal of process contaminants
 Objective
 Develop knowledge and technologies to produce cleaner effluents, greater compliance, lower toxicity, and reduced consumption

5-Year Outcomes
 Regulatory decisions influenced
 Mine effluent discharge compliance increases over baseline
 New treatment technologies developed
 Consumption of water in mining/milling is reduced
Flagship Projects
 Assessment of environmental risk of mine-related contaminants
 Technologies for sustainable use of water in the mining industry
Technologies Under Development
 Hybrid process for oils sands process water
 Process for removal of sulphate and other dissolved ions (Se)
 Passive treatment options

 Technical solutions are required to safely manage Canada's nuclear waste and address liability issues
 This priority will develop methods and innovative techniques to characterize, treat and stabilize both solid and liquid forms of nuclear wastes
 Objective
 Develop technologies to safely manage Canada's solid and liquid nuclear waste

5-Year Outcome
 Technical solution identified to safely manage Canada's nuclear waste
Flagship Projects
 Cemented radioactive waste
 Radioactive liquid waste
Technologies Under Development
 Processing technology of radioactive waste
 Recovery processes of key elements from radioactive wastes
 Cementation technology of radioactive waste

 Development of automated ventilation systems that provide air volumes to the production areas when, where and for as long as production requires
 It is estimated that a well managed VOD system could reduce the costs associated with ventilation by as much as 40%
 Cost savings, energy and GHG emission reductions
 Collaborations to demonstrate and deploy the technology
Local Partners/Funders
SME System Providers
Research
Implementation
Pilot

 Cyanide banned in some areas
 Alternatives are needed for gold processing
 New technology achieving recoveries equivalent to cyanidation (>90% recovery)
 Enhanced thiosulphate process
 Minimal environmental, social and investment risks
 Safer and greener
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
0 24
Enhanced non-ammoniacal thiosulfate leaching
Cyanidation with LN
Intensive ammoniacal ATS leaching
48 72
Hours
96 120 144
Implementation
Pilot
Research

 Traditional mine backfill makes use of
Portland cement
 Costly - Average of $1M per mine site annually
 Creates 0.5 Mt CO
2
/year
 Alternative Binder technology
 Uses waste rock in replace of Portland cement
 Internationally patented (US,EU, AU, SA)
 Benefits
 Reduces GHG emissions
 Diminishes smelter footprint
 Lessens environmental effects and long term liability
 Licensing opportunities Pilot

 Utilizing organic waste to remediate mine tailings and produce bioenergy feedstock
 Currently three demonstration sites in
Ontario
 Sudbury (Vale), Onaping (Xstrata),
Timmins (Goldcorp)
 Field trials have shown:
 10 t/ha (dry weight) of biomass
 ~5 M litres of biodiesel/y (from canola) from half tailings area
 ~$900/ha/yr profit
 Focus has largely shifted to sunflower, switchgrass and willow
 Focus now on the use of biochar for site remediation
Research
Implementation
Pilot

 Demand for rare metals is increasing, supply is declining
 Critical for high tech, clean energy, defence and medical
 Canada has over 200 REE projects at various stages of development
 New technologies critical for this emerging industry
 Mineralogical characterization
 Physical separation research
 Development of leaching and separation processes
 REE Certified Reference Materials
 Guideline on management of radioactive materials
Research
Implementation
Pilot

 Opportunity to develop and apply green mining technologies specifically for arctic/cold climates
 Collaboration of circumpolar mining nations to address technological challenges with respect to northern mineral resource development
 Joint green mining research on water and waste management, reclamation, and green processing alternatives to reduce environmental impacts in the fragile Northern ecosystems

 Increase bilateral and multilateral alliances to build international support for responsible mineral resources governance and sustainable development concepts, practices and policies
 Develop partnerships to accelerate deployment of GMI technologies
 Promote industry’s leadership in corporate social responsibility, responsible mineral development, environmental stewardship, and use of advanced technologies
 Support collaborative opportunities to enhance global market access of green mining technologies

Janice.Zinck@nrcan.gc.ca
http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/science/video/3571