LGEI, IMT Mines Alès, Université de Montpellier, Alès Cedex, France.
UFR STRM, Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
Integr Environ Assess Manag. 2021 Mar;17(2):465-479. doi: 10.1002/ieam.4336. Epub 2020 Oct 21.
Environmental impact assessment studies are mandatory for major industrial or infrastructure projects in most countries. These studies are usually limited to on-site impacts during exploitation but do not consider indirect impacts generated off-site or those concerning other steps of the project, including dismantling. National regulations in various countries have recently begun to include these neglected impacts to obtain a better appreciation of project trade-offs. Several scientists have highlighted the substantial potential of using the life cycle assessment methodology to increase the level of detail and completeness of environmental impact assessment (EIA) studies. Even if mining activities are known to produce significant local impacts, their consequences outside an extraction site have not yet been well documented. The implementation of the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology in the EIA procedure has been carried out in a Au mining project by separating on-site and off-site impacts during the entire life cycle of the mine from prospection to site restoration following the end of exploitation. Mining projects occur over large time periods and require diverse materials and processes. The main difficulty of such analysis is the data collection that needs to be extrapolated for some of the activities. Even with these limitations, the Afema case study highlighted the significant share of off-site impacts (from a spatial perspective) and the major contribution of the exploitation phase of the mine (from a temporal perspective). Operating activities, especially excavation, ore, and waste rock transportation, blasting, ore processing, and tailing treatments, are the main impacts produced during the exploitation phase and are involved in climate change, particulate matter formation, and land destruction. Therefore, this standardized LCA method should be recommended by the regulatory authorities for use in EIA procedures. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2021;17:465-479. © 2020 SETAC.
环境影响评估研究在大多数国家对于大型工业或基础设施项目都是强制性的。这些研究通常仅限于开采过程中的现场影响，但不考虑场外产生的间接影响或项目其他阶段（包括拆除）的影响。各国的国家法规最近已开始将这些被忽视的影响纳入其中，以更好地评估项目的权衡。一些科学家强调，大量使用生命周期评估方法来提高环境影响评估（EIA）研究的详细程度和完整性具有重要意义。即使采矿活动已知会产生重大的当地影响，但它们在开采场所以外的后果尚未得到很好的记录。通过在 Au 矿开采项目中，在整个矿山生命周期内，从勘探到开采结束后的场地恢复，将生命周期评估（LCA）方法应用于 EIA 程序，将现场和场外影响分开。采矿项目持续时间长，需要多种材料和工艺。这种分析的主要困难是需要对一些活动进行外推的数据收集。即使存在这些限制，Afema 案例研究强调了场外影响（从空间角度来看）的显著份额，以及矿山开采阶段（从时间角度来看）的主要贡献。运营活动，特别是挖掘、矿石和废石运输、爆破、矿石加工和尾矿处理，是开采阶段产生的主要影响，并涉及气候变化、颗粒物形成和土地破坏。因此，监管机构应推荐这种标准化的 LCA 方法，用于 EIA 程序。《综合环境评估与管理》2021 年；17：465-479。©2020 SETAC。
