Small step, great rewards: rethinking mining sustainability from old perspectives to new frames

ABSTRACT

There are increasing number of abandoned mines, which has gradually become a striking challenge for sustainable development and resource recycling. Safety risks and environmental pressures have obliged the mining industry to achieve the secondary development of mines. This paper builds a conceptual framework for abandoned mine resource utilization, and then denotes the 5 R principles (remining, recovery, redevelopment, reutilization, and recycling) and the energy-based, resource-based and function-based development patterns for scientific resource deployment with abandoned mines. Decision factors are investigated from four types of reutilization modes with 43 indicators, which can be classified as economy, resource potential, geography and safety. An integrated analytic hierarchy process (ANP) and strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) model are employed to explore the suitable reutilization methods for abandoned mines. The results from the case study show that suitable temperature conditions and technical problems are the top two decisive factors with weights of 0.3178 and 0.1604 respectively. The best strategy for a stone pit is to develop the service industry, which is valued at 20.99% in the seven strategies. The findings of this research indicate the urgent task of abandoned mine database construction and the significance of social performance management for mine closure. Implications are advanced for sustainable management and abandoned mine resource conservation, which help to implement low-carbon transition in the mining sector from the life cycle and cradle-to-cradle perspectives while achieving socioeconomic development and the transformation of resource-based cities.

KEYWORDS:

• Abandoned mines
• decision factors
• conceptual framework
• sustainable mining
• cradle-to-cradle

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the [National Key R&D Program of China] under Grant [2018YFC0831800]; [National Natural Science Foundation of China] under Grant [Nos. 71704178, 52142302]; [Beijing Excellent Talent Program] under Grant [No. 2017000020124G133]; [National Statistical Science Research Project by National Bureau of Statistics of China] under Grant [No. 2017LY10] and the [Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities] under Grant [No. 2021YQNY01]. The supports from the consulting members from the workshop organized by [Chinese Academy of Engineering] are also graciously acknowledged.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflicts of interests were reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China [No. 2018YFC0831800]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [Nos. 71704178, 52142302]; National Statistical Science Research Project by National Bureau of Statistics of China [No. 2017LY10]; Beijing Excellent Talent Program [No. 2017000020124G133]; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [No. 2021YQNY01].

Notes on contributors

Bing Wang

Bing Wang is currently a faculty member as an Associate Professor in Center for Sustainable Development and Energy Policy Research from School of Energy and Mining Engineering at China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing) in China. He has more than forty research publications in peer-reviewed journals and published two books in the field of energy policy research. His research interest includes energy transition strategies modeling, renewable energy economic and climate change impact assessment.

Xiang-Qian Pei

Xiang-Qian Pei took his Master degree of Engineering in School of Energy and Mining Engineering at China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing) in 2021 and worked as industrial engineer in Hangzhou, China. His master dissertation was about the strategic utilization of abandoned mines.

Yong-Jin Zhang

Yong-Jin Zhang is currently an Associate Professor in School of Law at Hebei University of Economics and Business in China. His research field includes decision making and law suggestions around interest groups for the renewed abandoned mines.

Yun-Bing Hou

Yun-Bing Hou is currently a Professor in School of Energy and Mining Engineering at China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing) in China. His research interests include energy systems engineering and governance for abandoned mines.

Guo-Ping Hu

Guo-Ping Hu was currently a research associate at Department of Chemical Engineering at The University of Melbourne in Australia. He has about ten years of experience in the field of mine gas utilization.