Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2BP, UK.
Environ Monit Assess. 2010 Apr;163(1-4):555-71. doi: 10.1007/s10661-009-0858-0. Epub 2009 Apr 8.
Metals have been central to the development of human civilisation from the Bronze Age to modern times, although in the past, metal mining and smelting have been the cause of serious environmental pollution with the potential to harm human health. Despite problems from artisanal mining in some developing countries, modern mining to Western standards now uses the best available mining technology combined with environmental monitoring, mitigation and remediation measures to limit emissions to the environment. This paper develops risk screening and prioritisation methods previously used for contaminated land on military and civilian sites and engineering systems for the analysis and prioritisation of chemical risks from modern metal mining operations. It uses hierarchical holographic modelling and multi-criteria decision making to analyse and prioritise the risks from potentially hazardous inorganic chemical substances released by mining operations. A case study of an active platinum group metals mine in South Africa is used to demonstrate the potential of the method. This risk-based methodology for identifying, filtering and ranking mining-related environmental and human health risks can be used to identify exposure media of greatest concern to inform risk management. It also provides a practical decision-making tool for mine acquisition and helps to communicate risk to all members of mining operation teams.
金属在人类文明的发展中一直处于核心地位，从青铜时代到现代都是如此，尽管过去金属采矿和冶炼曾导致严重的环境污染，并有可能危害人类健康。尽管一些发展中国家存在小规模采矿的问题，但现在符合西方标准的现代采矿采用了最佳可用采矿技术，并结合环境监测、缓解和补救措施，将排放限制在环境范围内。本文为分析和优先考虑现代金属采矿作业中的化学风险，开发了以前用于军事和民用场地及工程系统的受污染土地的风险筛选和优先排序方法。它使用分层全息建模和多准则决策分析来优先考虑采矿作业释放的潜在危险无机化学物质的风险。本文使用南非一个活跃的铂族金属矿的案例研究来证明该方法的潜力。这种用于识别、筛选和对与采矿相关的环境和人类健康风险进行分级的基于风险的方法可用于确定最受关注的暴露介质，以告知风险管理。它还为矿山收购提供了一个实用的决策工具，并有助于向采矿作业团队的所有成员传达风险。
