Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation in the Mining
Sector
INTRODUCTION
A changing climate presents physical risks to the mining sector because mines are often located
in challenging geographies that can experience extreme weather. These challenges have led to a
wide range of industry impacts, from minor equipment damage to catastrophic property losses,
and from localized impacts including severe lack of water to regional flooding. The
International Council on Mining and Metals has identified a growing awareness that a changing
climate and its impacts can affect the mining industry (ICMM 2013).
Each mine has a different level of vulnerability to climate impacts and hazards, based on several
factors including: location, type of mining, ecosystem vulnerability, and mine site adaptive
capacity, among others. The authors have worked on a number of mining projects in
geographically distinct areas of the world with extreme seasonal weather as well as extremes in
shorter-term weather patterns. Particularly vulnerable aspects of mines can include:
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access to critical climate-sensitive inputs, such as energy and water;
supply chain reliability that includes the delivery of inputs such as fuels, electricity and
materials to the facility or site, and the delivery of ore or processed metals to market;
operational performance and resilience of assets (mine sites, transportation infrastructure,
commercial property and industrial process efficiencies);
changes in the water balance over the operating life of mines or facilities;
cumulative impacts on valued ecosystem components such as ecological receptors; and
long-term management of mine sites and mine wastes post-closure.
There are also social license risks as mines may compete for these impacted resources with local
stakeholders and this can affect company reputation, local community relationships, civil society
groups and governments in the areas where companies operate. If these risks are not
characterized and addressed, they may have cost implications that affect the return on investment
and the profitable operating life of mines or facilities. As a result mine stakeholders and decision
makers are increasingly asking for documentation to demonstrate how the design of the project
considers potential impacts from a changing climate at the planning stages for new and
expanding mines. Climate change planning must therefore consider the effects of the
environment on the project and consider adaptation measures, so that the project will operate
effectively in an uncertain future climate. The Environmental and Social Impact Assessment
(ESIA) process can be used to integrate this climate change assessment at the pre-feasibility
stage of mine planning.
This paper will, through a series of case studies, illustrate how mines in Africa, North and South
America are dealing with a changing climate in their ESIA’s.
REQUIREMENTS FOR CLIMATE CHANGE ASSESSMENT
Climate change adaptation encompasses “adjustments in natural or human systems in response to
actual or expected climatic stimuli on their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial
opportunities” (IPCC, 2007a). Adaptation actions can help to achieve sustainable development
objectives related to local community engagement and social development, biodiversity
enhancement and protection of sensitive ecosystems, natural resources stewardship, and
strengthen reputation with key external stakeholders. Weather variability and long term changes
in the climate have been recognized as a current reality (IPCC, 2007a) and the need to
incorporate climate change adaptation has been identified by the International Association for
Impact Assessment (IAIA). The IAIA has stressed the need to address climate change in impact
assessments in terms of both mitigation and adaptation (Byers et. al., 2012). ESIA’s can be
defined as a “comprehensive and systematic planning process designed to identify, analyze and
evaluate the environmental effects of proposed projects and ensure that these impacts and
considerations are factored into project decision making”. Proponents must understand and
present how future weather variability, such as severe and/or extreme weather conditions, and
the long term effects of a changing climate, could adversely affect project infrastructure or
Valued Ecosystem Components, and document how the project has been designed to be resilient
to these changes
Numerous regulatory agencies have also formalized this need in their ESIA requirements. For
example, in North America the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) places
requirements to assess climate change directly in the ESIA guidelines for each project they are to
assess and has provided general guidance for practitioners (FPTCCCEA, 2003) and the US
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has guidance on considering climate change in terms of
analyzing and preparing for the potential risks associated with the impact of extreme events on
project design (US EPA, 2011). In South America the Chilean National Adaptation Plans to
Climate Change (National Environmental Commission, 2008) promotes, coordinates, and when
appropriate, implements activities that increase the resilience of sectors exposed to climate
change and in Peru the Ministry of Mines and Energy places similar assessment requirements as
Canada. The European Union has produced the Guidance on Integrating Climate Change and
Biodiversity into Environmental Impact Assessment (European Union, 2013), which provides
guidance on how to integrate climate change and biodiversity in ESIAs.
In addition to governmental guidance, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) has issued
Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability that have similar
requirements for projects that require World Bank Funding or must demonstrate that they meet
the Equator Principles.
A recent study, Assessing the Treatment of Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation in ProjectLevel EAs in the Canadian Mining Sector (Rodgers, et. all 2014), highlights best practices for
climate impacts and adaptation considerations in Mining ESIA’s.
Gold Mine, Nunavut Canada
A climate change assessment for the Agnico-Eagle Meliadine Mine in Nunavut, Canada, was
completed following the guidance of FPTCCCEA, 2003. The Project, proposed for a remote
area in Northern Canada, included a mine, metal ore processing facilities, an all-weather road,
and a port facility. Unique considerations in the area are the presence of permafrost, concerns
related to sea-level rise affecting port facilities, the availability and structural integrity of the allweather road, and the overall robustness of the facility and operations to significant seasonal and
year-to-year weather trends.
Future climate trends were assessed using tools developed by Golder Associates which use a
multi-model ensemble (including all models and scenarios accepted by IPCC in the AR4 report)
and provided by the Canadian Climate Change Scenarios Network (CCCSN) for two time
horizons: 2041 to 2070 (noted as 2050s) to represent the operations phase and 2071 to 2100
(noted as 2080s). Data was presented in a series of figures and tables to establish the range of
future climate predictions and the uncertainties surrounding this data.
A complete list of climate and project infrastructure interactions was developed which provided
a qualitative analysis of the climate risk associated with the different factors (e.g., frequency of
drought, frequency of extreme temperatures, frequency of rainfall, etc.) which was provided to
the other disciplines involved in the ESIA and their feedback solicited. Significant climate
infrastructure interactions were briefly discussed in the Climate Change Technical Support
Document and were covered in greater detail in the supporting documents generated by the
disciplines concerned.
In addition the predicted changes in climate were considered along with an understanding of
direct and indirect climate change impacts to wildlife species to qualitatively assess cumulative
effects Overall, the assessment concluded that impacts of climate change to barren ground
caribou, in particular, may be larger than the project effects. Climate change impacts affect the
entire herd, and can result in negative feedbacks, while the Project affects a small portion of the
herd, at specific times during the year. Monitoring and adaptive management recommended by
the IPCC for dealing with the uncertainty of climate change effects on ecosystems was included
in the ESIA.
Copper Mine, Northern region of Argentina
An evaluation of possible meteorological trends that could affect the local water balance,
particularly regarding precipitation and evaporation for closure stage, was conducted for a
project located in the North-West of Argentina, at 2.600 m a.s.l. Using HadCM3 results, a
statistical downscaling was completed based on the construction of multivariate correlations
between the studied variables (precipitation and evaporation) and the main variables that affect
them (wind speed, atmospheric pressure, relative humidity, air temperature, among others). The
adopted emission scenarios were B2 (moderate GHG emissions) and A2 (aggressively increasing
GHG emissions).
In general terms, results show an increase in temperature, a slight decrease in the pan
evaporation and a gradual but significant increase in precipitation for the mine area (according
with general trends expected by the IPCC in this region).
The figure shows the obtained projection for precipitation (left) and evaporation (right).
Although the observed annual precipitation variability is significant, the obtained average values
thorough the first decade (2012-2022) remain within those historically observed in the area (190
mm/yr).
Iron Ore Project, South Eastern Guinea, West Africa
A company is assessing the feasibility of developing an iron ore mine in a mountainous region of
southeastern Guinea, West Africa. The ESIA targets the mine and associated facilities including
the townsite, crusher, loading facilities and alternative local rail routes. The Project would
involve mining possibly 500 million tonnes (MT) of iron ore from open pits located in the
northern portion of a mountain range, effectively lowering the height of the mountain’s ridgeline.
The mountain range has an altitudinal gradient of over 1,000 m from lowland to summit, and
strong seasonality of climate. It is covered in Upper Guinean rain forest, montane forest and
high altitude grasslands. This, in addition to the extreme age and the diverse micro-climates, has
resulted in extraordinary biological assemblages. The mining concession and its immediate
environs are surrounded by an area classified under Guinean Law as a Strict Nature Reserve
(SNR).
The presence of the SNR around the mining area requires that the site’s environmental
management programme be comprehensive, thorough and performed to high international
standards. This has been undertaken through the preparation of an ESIA that complies with all
applicable Guinean laws, as well as ICMM’s standards. To the extent modelling permits, the
ESIA includes a consideration of both very localized micro climatic changes due to the proposed
changes in the topography of the site during the mine’s development, and any evidence for
regional climatic changes through consideration of long-term monitoring and modelling
assessments. Due to the complexity of the mountain range with respect to climate, the climatemodelling assessments were undertaken in collaboration with the UK Met Office and the
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), USA. Results from these assessments as
utilized within the ESIA will be presented.
SUMMARY
A framework for successfully integrating climate change for mining projects into an ESIA has
been developed. This framework has been used to assist mines to establish the current climate
and future climate projections for an ESIA, as well as how to consider climate interactions within
the ESIA and document the effects of climate change on the conclusions of the ESIA. Following
this framework a robust climate change impact assessment have been presented within an ESIA
that documents how future weather variability, such as severe and/or extreme weather conditions
and the long term effects of a changing climate has been considered with regard to project
infrastructure or Valued Ecosystem Components, and how the Project has been designed to be
resilient to these projected changes.
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