Empowering emerging environmental
leaders to promote sustainable
mining, forestry and climate change
practices and policies in Ghana
Center for Public Interest Law (“CEPIL”)
www.cepil.org.gh
Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (“ELAW”)
www.elaw.org
Accra, Ghana - August 3, 2010
Environmental Impact Assessment
(“EIA”) Process in Ghana
Overview of Environmental Impact Assessment
Process in Ghana
Goals of Environmental Impact Assessment
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Identify and disclose environmental impacts of project prior to project being
started.
Inform permitting process of the project to minimize environmental impacts.
Ensure modern, precautionary controls are incorporated into design of new
mining projects and ensure self-assessment by companies.
To develop sustainable environmental practices in industrial projects.
Overview of Environmental Impact Assessment Process in Ghana (continued)
Legal Framework
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Constitution of Ghana
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Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) Act, 1994 (Act 490)
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Ghana Environmental Assessment Regulations 1999, LI 1652
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Environmental Impact Assessment Procedures, June 1995
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Mining and Environmental Guidelines, 1994
Applicability
Projects likely to have “significant impacts on the environment” required to:
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Register with the Ghana EPA
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Obtain environmental permits prior to beginning construction and operations
Environmental Assessment Regulations 1999 require EIA for:
“mining and processing of minerals in areas where the mining lease covers a total area in excess of
10 hectares”
Steps in Ghanaian EIA Process
1.
Registration of potential mining project with EPA
2.
Screening of registration by EPA within 25 days
2.
Scoping and Terms of Reference
3.
Development of Environmental Impact Statement (“EIS”)
4.
Provisional Environmental Permit
Terms of Reference
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Description of project.
Analysis of need for project .
Alternatives to project.
Description of site of project, why site selected, any alternative sites considered.
Identification of existing environmental conditions, including social, economic and other
environmental concerns.
Potential positive and negative impacts of project on environmental, social, economic, and
cultural aspects.
Potential impact on health of people.
Mitigation measures and potential negative socio-economic, cultural and public health
impacts on the environment.
Plan for monitoring predictable environmental impact and proposed mitigation measures.
Contingency plans to address unpredicted negative environmental impacts and proposed
mitigation measures for these impacts.
Consultation with public affected by project.
Maps, plans, tables, graphs, etc. to assist in understanding project.
Provisional environmental management plan.
Proposals for payment of compensation for possible damage to land or property arising
from project.
Indication if any area outside Ghana likely to be affected by project activities.
Environmental Impact Statements (“EIS”)
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Clear assessment of proposed project on environment based on TRO’s (terms of reference).
Possible direct and indirect impact of project on environment at pre-construction, construction,
operation, decommissioning, and post-decommissioning phases including:
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Concentrations of pollutants in environment, including air, water and land from mobile or fixed sources
Direct ecological changes from pollutant concentrations on communities, habitats, flora and fauna
Alteration in ecology from project
Ecological consequences of direct destruction of habitats
Noise and vibration levels
Odour
Impacts from vehicle traffic
Changes in social, cultural and economic patterns
Possible health effects of project on people within and around project
Reclamation plans
Process for Development of EIS
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Preparation of draft EIS by project proponent/mining company.
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Engage public information programme for impacted area.
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Provision of copies of draft EIS to EPA by mining company.
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Concerns of public recorded and addressed.
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Notice of draft EIS provided to public.
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Public hearing required if strong public concern and extensive impacts from
project.
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Acceptability of draft EIS determined by EPA.
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Revisions made to draft EIS by mining company as required by EPA.
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Approval of EIS by EPA.
Limitations of Environmental Impact
Assessment
COMPARISON OF
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
PROCESS BETWEEN GHANA
AND THE UNITED STATES
Mary Marrow
Attorney
Minnesota Center for
Environmental Advocacy
mmarrow@mncenter.org
Comparison of Environmental Review Process
between Ghana and the United States
1.
Similarities and differences
2.
Successes and Challenges
3.
Best Practices of Environmental Review
4.
Opportunities for Civil Society Intervention
Comparison of Environmental Review Process between Ghana
and the United States
Similarities:
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Multiple government agencies involved in regulating mining
projects.
Conflicts between agencies from different focus of agencies.
Civil Society experience that public hearings and EIA process
biased in favor of mining project.
Civil Society not an equal partner in negotiations between
government agencies and mining companies.
Environmental Impact Assessment often does not accurately predict
environmental impacts from project.
Comparison of Environmental Review Process
between Ghana and the United States (con.)
Differences:
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Land impacted by mining projects – (Vacant/Populated Lands).
Human rights impacts from mining operations in Ghana much
more problematic than those in the United States.
Public Participation.
Transparency and public access to information.
US EPA required to do its own independent analysis of project.
May not rely on analysis of project proponent alone.
Successes and Challenges of Environmental
Review in Ghana
Success
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EPA and mining companies aware of key environmental issues and best practices,
including:
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Need for public participation in project and environmental review process.
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Need for transparency and providing information to public.
Challenge
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Best practices not implemented by government agencies and mining agencies.
Conflict between what EPA and mining companies say happens and experience of
communities in impacted by mining project.
Successes and Challenges (con.)
Success
Involvement of civil society is leading to greater agency accountability
and responsiveness to community and environmental concerns.
Challenges
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Civil society not equal partner in environmental review process.
Many documents still confidential between mining company and EPA.
Public access to information is limited.
Government agencies need to do more to protect rights of
Ghanaians.
Government agencies not effectively applying and enforcing existing
environmental laws.
Successes and Challenges (con.)
Challenge
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Process for determining amount of compensation for land and resources destroyed from mining
project.
Negotiations regarding compensation left to local governments, communities and individuals
who are disadvantaged in terms of power and information.
Government agencies take active role in negotiating terms of project and permitting project
but “take a back seat” in determining how communities/individuals will be compensated.
Challenge
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Government agencies have conflict of interest in dual roles played:
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Responsible for both permitting projects and supporting growth and development of
mineral resources and regulating them.
Successes and Challenges (con.)
Challenge
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Technical expertise of government agencies limited.
Need adequate resources for government agency to properly monitor mining
projects.
Government agencies do not have adequate personnel or training to monitor scope
of environmental impacts.
Challenge
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No standard for public participation.
Current process for public participation is not representative of those most impacted
by mining projects.
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Those with most to gain from mining project relied on to voice the concerns of communities
(ie. chiefs and traditional leaders).
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No requirement that those who are most impacted from mining project are involved in
process or have representation. (ie. women, children, small farmers, etc.).
Environmental Review Best
Practices – selected examples
(based on U.S. model)
Environmental Review Best Practices: Public Participation
1. Financial assurance/economic bond information included in Environmental
Impact Statement.
2. Public disclosure of financial assurance/economic bond terms and what must
be completed prior to the return of the economic bond to the company.
3. Public notice and involvement prior to return of economic bond to mining
company to assist EPA in determining if requirements for closure are
adequately completed, including opportunity for public to raise legal
challenge if company has not adequately met terms of closure.
Environmental Review Best Practices: Public Participation (con.)
4. Environmental assessment required for mineral exploration with public
participation in environmental review process for exploratory activities.
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Allows public to have advanced notice of potential project, provide more time for
public to organize, anticipate impacts and become engaged in process
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Exploration has environmental impacts that must be assessed and mitigated.
5. Minimum of 30-day comment period for public, with liberal approval of
requests for extension of time for public comment and participation in
environmental review process for large mining projects.
6. Copies of draft and final EIS and supporting documents given free of
charge to members of public who have interest in project or have requested
copy.
Environmental Review Best Practices: Public Participation (con.)
7. Environmental documents made available electronically and posted on
agency website.
8. Public participation for both environmental review and permitting
processes.
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Environmental review – identifies impacts from project on environment,
communities, etc. Should be used to inform the permitting process.
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Permitting should be a separate process with its own public process –
comment, public hearing, etc. Provides public with more specific details of
project and additional opportunity for public involvement.
Environmental Review Best Practices: Public Participation (con.)
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Public disclosure of documents after initial EIS, including:
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Periodic review of economic bond/financial assurance.
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Environmental monitoring reports submitted by mining company to
government
Opportunity for public involvement in earlier stages of process – pre EIS.
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Determining if EIS should be required.
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Identifying or revising the terms of reference in scoping process.
Environmental Review Best Practices: Environmental Analysis
1. Government agency develops independent EIS – often hiring an independent 3rd party
contractor to conduct work, which is also verified by individual technical experts working
within the EPA/government agency.
2. Cumulative Impacts analysis included in EIS.
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Cumulative impacts analysis includes a broader review of the impacts in a larger area and over
broader time period. Especially important when considering the regional wide mining activity in
the Western Region.
3. Analysis of alternatives to proposed mining project.
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Alternatives analysis should analyze at least 3 alternatives, including the proposed project, a no
action alternative, and another viable alternative.
EIS should identify the “preferred alternative” so public understands which course of action is
preferred by the agency.
Note: Ghana EIA is required by law to include alternatives analysis, but review of Ghanaian EIAs shows that EIS/EIA’s
approved by Ghana EPA are legally deficient and do not include this analysis.
Opportunities for Civil Society
Intervention and Advocacy
Opportunities for Civil Society
Advocacy and Intervention
Legal Intervention
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Identify strategic cases to ensure current laws and regulations
enforced adequately by government agencies.
Development of “Public Trust Doctrine” to ensure that actions of
government agencies protect the public trust and human rights of
Ghanaian citizens.
Focus cases on improving status of civil society as equal partner with
government agencies and mining companies.
Challenge to confidentiality of documents and exclusion of public
from process.
Opportunities for Civil Society Intervention (con.)
Advocacy with Government Agencies
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New EPA project to develop standard rates for financial compensation for
individuals losing land and crops as result of mining activity.
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EPA to hire contractor to establish standardized rates of compensation.
Community involvement supposed to be part of this process.
Advocacy by civil society groups essential to ensure rates accurately reflect true
value of land, crops, and other resources impacted by mining projects.
Environmental performance and public disclosure document rating
environmental performance of mining companies.
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Scheduled to be released in August 2010, with annual updates beginning March
2011.
Advocacy by civil society essential to ensure information is accurate and public’s
experience reflected.
May provide access to information which has not previously been publicly
available (environmental monitoring reports of companies).
TECHNICALITIES OF TAILINGS,
CYANIDE CONTAINMENT, AND
EIA’S
Patrick Freeze,
Technical and Policy Analyst Intern
Great Basin Resource Watch
University of Nevada, Reno
Environmental Science
A technical look at mining….
Mining and the Environment
Why we use cyanide (CN)
So, what are tailings made of?
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Small rock particles after the mineral ore has been
extracted
Cyanide (which volatizes fairly quickly in sunlight)
Salts
Water
Suspended and dissolved solids (soil and salts)
Whatever mineral ore was not picked up by carbon
(CIL)
Advantages of Tailings Impoundment
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Economical methods of disposal (compared to backfilling)
Manages storm and waste water flow, pH (metals), TDS,
and TSS
Removes suspended particulate matter and solids
Treatment of effluent from tailings
Heavy metals will precipitate out as hydroxides
Holding area for oxidizable material not separated as PAG
(potential acid generating) rock
Storage and stabilization of process recycle water
Technical Report, Design and Evaluation of Tailings Dams, US EPA, August 1994
…and MOST IMPORTANTLY
Permanent containment of contaminants,
potentially acid generating waste, as well as
unsettled and settled particulates (TDS/TSS)
Some disadvantages…
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Large area of surface disturbance
Some difficulty in re-vegetation and reclamation,
particularly with acid-generating tailings (as well as
heap leach sites)
Potential for surface and ground water contamination
Inefficient chemical treatment due to environmental
factors (precipitation, volatilization capacity, etc)
Costly and difficult collection and treatment of seepage
through impoundment structures
Dispersion of dust and other fine particulate matter
unless surface reclaimed
Some Methods of Tailings Disposal
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Subaqueous (under-water) disposal
Backfill in underground mines
Backfill in pitmine
Backfilling is the most desirable method as it frees
up land space but it is very costly (which is why it is
rarely utilized).
Types of Tailing Disposal
In-Pit
 Disposing tailing material in previously mined pit or
current pit post-production
 Tailings placed above water table
 Usually in PAG (potentially acid generating) cell to
avoid acid generation, lined with counteracting
basic material
Valley design (most popular)
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Utilizes natural valley depression
Single and Multiple Cross-Valley Impoundments
Single and Multiple Side-Hill Valley Impoundments
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Other designs include
 Ring-Dike
and
 Specially Dug Pit
Water Retention Dams
Water Retention Embankments/Dams
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Retention dam embankments built in four successive
lifts based on:
 The
life of the mine
 Production
 Environmental factors (precipitation)
Embankments can use natural soil, tailings, and waste rock
in any combination.
Local materials are most economical
Types of Embankments
Upstream Construction Method
(most common and economical)
Downstream Construction
Method
Centerline Construction Method
Best Management Practices
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Facility Monitoring
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Water Control
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Visual
Peizometers (to monitor effluent flow through ground)
Liner and drainage analysis
Flow
Precipitation Monitoring
Regular and Major (unforeseen) Storm Events
Ground/surface water contamination monitoring
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Infiltration
Evaporation rates
…and Accurate Modeling and Predictions (difficult)
…and very important
Good soil compaction and design of tailings
embankments and facility!
Sufficient compaction of the soil during the
construction of the embankment is key in minimizing
infiltration of tailings effluent to surface and
groundwater supplies.
Common failure mechanisms
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Overtopping (flood waters)
Erosion (also from heavy rains)
Sliding (sloughing of areas of tailings material)
Liquefaction (movement of liquefied solid massmost common)
 Mass
density, soil composition, water table, seismic
activity, and internal stress of tailings facility
 Saturation of embankment
Tailings Seepage
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Detected through visual analysis as well as such
instruments as Peizometers
Chemical analysis required
 Contaminants
such as salts, metals, and cyanide could
interact with groundwater as well as flow-through
areas, contaminating entire groundwater supplies
Seepage Control Methods
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Sufficient Liners (either synthetic or composed of
impermeable clays)
Slimes (moderately impermeable layers evenly
distributed amongst tailings material. Used to slow
down infiltration of tailings)
Embankment Monitoring
Pumpback Systems
Guidelines for Proper Tailings Impoundment
Construction in Nevada
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Typically highly-dense synthetic liner
Leak detection system
System of drains beneath the reservoir
Preferably downstream construction
Enough free room to accommodate the "100 year" 24hour storm (including the added pressure on
embankment)
Liquefaction and slope stability analysis
Independent permitting of tailings facility
*State of Nevada, Division of Water Resources
Technical look at some EIA’s
A general analysis (with comments much like those
seen in US EIS’s and EA’s) of two Ghanaian EIA’s. A
fuller analysis could be conducted….
Kibi Goldfields Limited,
Osino-Pusupusu Alluvial Gold Project EIA
Re-establishment of alluvial gold mine at Osino in Fanteakwa District of East Region
A few of the general areas of improvement upon review….
Gold reserves should be in project description. Slightly difficult trying to locate.
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No clear outline of chemical process used to extract gold.
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A clearer contour map should be included.
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No alternatives proposed other than the proposed action. For the sake of impact mitigation, all
alternatives and options should be included and considered.
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Fairly adequate field analysis
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Only “comments” included are two letters of consent from the Chief of Osino and the Chief of
Saaman. Comments from any and all parties should be included for public disclosure.
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Socio-economic impacts outlined i.e. added financial strain on communities, schools, utilities,
employment, etc., but with no definite mitigation plan.
“…will also contact and assist, where possible the District Assembly to provide more social amenities,
such as places of convenience, schools, to which is the direct responsibility of the District
Assembly.” (page 48)
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Tailings Analysis
The predicted life of this mine is 9+ years and is located in one of the
wetter areas of the region. There is no mention of any embankment
management plan, even with a prediction of increased production.
“Thus the design has in-built provisions to ensure non-stop and efficient
tailings handling, and to prevent plant or dam failures”
(page 46, 5.7.1)
Although there is ‘mention’ of a figure or diagram of the tailings facility
and dam, one could not be located. There is also no mention of
cyanide in the tailings composition. What chemicals will actually be
present or predicted?
This disclosure statement and mitigation plan is unacceptable.
Newmont Ghana Gold Limited
Ahafo Project (South) EIA
A 15 year old gold project located in the Brong Ahafo Region
What this particular EIA has and is missing:
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The alternatives listed lacks sufficient consideration of alternatives necessary to fulfill both
purpose of an EIA as well as avoiding significant impacts
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Adequate maps of area and predicted gold reserves
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Sufficient analysis of environmental chemistry of mining area
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Lose and easily misconstrued language with no definite reason or explanation. Needs to be
more concise and direct (too many “should’s”):
“Monitoring of tailings moisture contents and densities, and survey of the tailings beach and
supernatant pond locations should be conducted four times a year.” (section 2.18.1)
“The local environment should be protected from seepage that may escape the TSF (tailings storage
facility) over time.” (section 2.18.2)
“Groundwater resources in the area are not suitable to supply adequate quantities of water for a
major industrial project, however, there should be no major problems to find the requirements for
drinkable water.” (section 3.2.6.1)
Tailings analysis
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Adequate layout of tailings handling management plan:
“The TSF designed by Knight Piésold will comply with national (Ghana Minerals
and Mining Law, 1986, Ghana's Mining Environmental Guidelines, Final Draft
1994) and State of Nevada (U.S.) Administrative Code Chapter 445A –
Water Controls and Mining Facilities (Appendix II.7)” (section 2.17.3)
Flood control related to precipitation included with spillway design:
“An emergency spillway will be constructed at the south embankment for each
annual raise to control the discharge of any extreme storm events exceeding
the design event.” (2.17.2)
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Included adjustments to embankment correlating to production and life of mine
as well seepage control, leachate collection systems, and liner monitoring.
Impacts and analysis fully disclosed and is acceptable.
Some points to think about…
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Tailings impoundment construction is and should be
a critical part of a DYNAMIC process. One tailings
facility will not work for every mining site.
Good intentions alone do not make an adequate
mitigation plan. ‘Loose’ language tends to remove
accountability.
EIA’s are action-forcing disclosure documents to
assess impacts.
DISCUSSION
AND
QUESTIONS