As a wholly owned subsidiary of KGHM Polska Miedź S.A., KGHM International (KGHM-I) is focused on its operating assets, working to advance its growth pipeline. The company operates a group of projects spread across North and South America including four open-pit mines and two underground mines.
One of the most advanced and responsible initiatives the company has undertaken is the implementation of a mine-for-closure operating plan at its KGHM-I Carlota (“Carlota” or “the company”) mine.
Responsible mining initiatives
Permitted in 1997, the Carlota project is a 100 percent owned open-pit, heap leach mine producing roughly 25 million pounds of copper annually. Located in Arizona, the mine became one of the first copper mines designated and permitted under modern environmental legislation within the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
Since the inception of the mine, Carlota has been pursuing a goal of responsible environmental stewardship and excellent community relations. The company has implemented a mine-for-closure plan that follows suit with the Arizona environmental regulations as well as Federal guidelines. The key component of mine-for-closure is incorporating closure activities into the mine plan during operations and continuing copper production while conducting closure.
“Mine-for-closure has always been a part of our plan and various parts of the facility were combined into that methodology,” says Dave Cook, general manger of Carlota.
According to the general manager, the infrastructure at the mine was built with the intention it would be closed in full compliance with state and federal regulations.
“One of the specifications was a partial pit back fill in lieu of building extra waste rock stockpiles. Other plans included minimizing visual impacts, concurrent waste rock stockpile reclamation, and putting a cover and exclusionary capping on our leach pad, once copper recovery is completed. And Carlota has partnered with the University of Arizona’s Center for Environmentally Sustainable Mining and consulting experts on its closure plans. ”
As the life of the mine winds down, Carlota is extremely proud of the work it’s done at the site.
“We have an opportunity to set a standard that will serve KGHM-I well because as we permit other facilities, it’s important to be able to say we’ve done responsible closure before and that we can be successful,” says Cook.
“We’re going to have our challenges as we close things but we’re going to be responsible and what we say we’ll do in our permit documents, we’re going to do, within the scientific limits of a dynamic environment.”
For the rest of this sponsored content, click here: http://www.miningglobal.com/operations/1279/KGHM-International:-A-Legacy-of-Responsible-Mining