Minerals Education
Environmental
considerations and the sustainable development agenda are changing the mining
and minerals processing industries. Society not only expects the minerals
industry to run its operations with minimal environmental impact and
rehabilitate its sites but also to make a positive contribution to reducing
global environmental impacts such as climate change, protection of biodiversity
and sustainable use of natural resources. Industry and government expect to
employ minerals graduates that are acquainted with environmental and sustainable
development issues, and can contribute to developing appropriate response
strategies from a solid background in one of the mineral disciplines.
The ultimate
objective of integrating environmental aspects in minerals curricula is to train
mining professionals that have a proper understanding and appreciation for the
potential environmental impacts of the mining and minerals processing
industries. They are ‘environmental literate’ mining and minerals specialists,
and not environmental specialists with a specialisation in mining and minerals
processing.
The mining and
minerals processing industries have tremendous potential for growth and in
several minerals rich regions industry and governments are preparing for major
production capacity expansion projects to meet demand, in particular from the
rapidly expanding economies of developing and newly industrialising countries.
In India for example, iron ore and coal production are forecasted to increase by
at least 50% over the next three to five years. In Western Australia seven major
mining and minerals processing projects were commissioned in the 1998/1999
financial year, with another five currently under construction and another 20 to
25 under consideration.
The potential
growth of the sector is, however, endangered by public concerns about the
environmental profile and responsibility of the mining and minerals processing
industries. Public concern centres on health, safety and environmental impacts
of mining and minerals facilities. The death toll of mining workers in South
Africa for instance still fluctuates around a staggering number of 500 annually.
Environmental concerns exist for both small and large scale mining operations,
albeit of a different nature. The declining public trust in the mining and
minerals processing industries affects growth opportunities in two distinct
ways. First, approval processes for new ventures have become more complex,
expensive and time consuming. Second, public concern about the mining industry
impacts on the ability of the sector to attract high calibre graduates and
professionals, who in turn are necessary to realise the planned expansions in an
environmentally acceptable manner. A concerted effort by the mining and minerals
processing industries, government, professional associations and the education
sector is needed to consolidate and preferably even regain public trust.
Australia, and in
particular Western Australia, is an example of a developed country with a large
mining industry base and mining and minerals production are key sectors of the
economy. There is the capacity to
address environmental challenges and develop appropriate solutions for the
specific climate and ecosystems in which mining and minerals processing takes
place. Australian industry is committed to dealing with environmental issues in
a socially acceptable manner, as evidenced by a recent survey of members of the
Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia. All respondents said their
company has an environmental policy in place, and 80% of the companies actively
disclose environmental information to the general public by means of public
environmental reports, the Internet and/or newsletters. The different corporate
attitudes to the environment are shown in figure 1. For only 5 % of the
respondents, environment is an area where negative publicity has to be avoided.
All others displayed corporate attitudes reflecting higher levels of
environmental integration.
The mining and
minerals processing industries have begun to respond to the growing public
concern about its environmental impacts. The first efforts focused on management
of hazardous substances and mining waste, but gradually efforts have expanded to
cover issues such as water management, energy conservation and mine
rehabilitation. Some companies have successfully adopted a proactive approach to
prevent waste and emissions occurring in the first place, by means of changes in
product specifications, modification of technology and equipment, and
optimisation of process operation and management and planning procedures. This
‘cleaner production’ approach can, in the case of the mining industry, be
achieved through optimisation of the ore-waste rock ratios by means of proper
mine design, application of alternative leaching techniques to reduce the use of
toxics (for example bioleaching) and recovery and utilisation of mining
by-products (such as coal seam gas). There is growing evidence that cleaner
production technologies and practices can reduce production costs in parallel
with reduction of the environmental impacts of mining and mineral processing
facilities.
Minerals curricula
have changed over time in response to developments in technology, changes in
ores excavated and minerals produced, and shifts in corporate and societal
values. Requirements in terms of basic science and engineering,
discipline-specific engineering, engineering design, industry experience and
research projects have remained essentially the same over recent decades, with
new requirements added in the fields of communication skills, management,
minerals economics, information technology, mining law and environmental issues.
In the 1970s environmental issues were included in some programmes, typically
focusing on waste and tailings disposal, dam stabilisation, mine-site
rehabilitation and water treatment. In the 1980s environmental issues were
integrated in a growing number of minerals programmes and these expanded to
incorporate topics such as total site environmental management, back-filling,
acid rain, habitat maintenance and environmental legislation. In the 1990s the
professional accreditation bodies started to require environmental elements in
minerals programmes, with an increased shift in the environmental programmes to
sustainable development.
The United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) recently completed a survey of the state of
environmental education in mining schools around the globe. The survey revealed
three major trends. First, there has been a gradual increase of environmental
content in existing minerals programmes, with many of the responding mining
schools aiming at 15 to 20 % environmental content. Second, several of the
leading international mining schools continue to de-emphasise mining and are
starting to offer integrated courses in earth sciences. Third, several smaller
mining schools have almost completely changed over to environmental curricula
with mining only being a subject of specialisation towards the end of the
undergraduate programme or through graduate studies. According to the survey,
curricula are changing to incorporate the environment, but there are large
variations between schools. In many cases, the change was only to add new
environmental topics; integration was a much slower
process.
The Chamber of
Minerals and Energy of Western Australia surveyed the levels of environmental
competency sought by its members. Employers expect a clear commitment from their
new employees to resolve environmental problems, although recruitment criteria
for graduates differ sharply between environmental and non-environmental
recruits. In order of decreasing importance, recruitment criteria for
environmental positions are:
*
academic record;
*
understanding of community and social implications and processes;
*
communication and interpersonal skills; and,
*
practical experience and technical knowledge and skills.
In
recruitment for technical positions, companies select on the basis of:
*
technical knowledge and skills;
*
communication and interpersonal skills;
*
academic record;
*
practical experience;
*
commitment to environmental protection; management skills;
and,
understanding of environmental,
community and social context and awareness of global environmental issues.
All
recruits need to be committed to environmental protection, but the staff mining
companies actually employed tended not to be as proficient as the companies
preferred, in particular in areas like environmental auditing and project and
work planning.
ENVIRONMENTAL
LITERACY CHALLENGES
Environmental
issues in the mining and minerals industries have become increasingly complex
and diverse during the last decade, and with the evolution of the environmental
agenda, it is likely that such complexity and diversity will grow. Environmental
literacy programmes in mining and minerals education should therefore aim to
instil a basic level of environmental awareness, possibly best defined as “the
ability to recognise potentially adverse impacts of mining and minerals
processing on the environment, and contribute to their characterisation,
minimisation and management”. To reach this level of environmental awareness,
environmental literacy programmes need to combine the explanation of general
environmental concepts (for example sustainable development, life cycle
thinking), with factual insight in environmental impacts (for example climate
change, biodiversity protection), and training in practical environmental
management skills (for example environmental management systems, environmental
impact assessment).
The
critical task for environmental literacy programmes is to ensure that
environmental considerations and sustainable development issues are an integral
part of the mainstream curriculum instead of an elective add on of secondary
importance in the overall curriculum. This situation can be achieved by
including environmental implications and case studies in the core disciplinary
courses, and substitution of part of the currently used problem-solving tasks by
environmental problem-solving parts.
Given
their focus on process integrated solutions that create both environmental and
economic benefit, the ‘cleaner production’, ‘eco-efficiency’ and ‘sustainable
development’ strategies are most appropriate for guiding the integration of
environmental content into discipline specific courses. Environmental training
for minerals graduates should therefore embrace those strategies, and promote
the environmental and financial benefits that can be gained from a proactive and
preventive environmental approach, for instance through sharing of industry best
practice and cleaner production focused problem solving tasks. As in other
sectors of industry and engineering education, universities can play a prominent
role in facilitating the transition towards cleaner production and sustainable
development.
The
leading role universities and mining schools can take is multi-facetted and goes
beyond the traditional teaching domain. Most importantly, mining schools should
educate future industry leaders, who should have a better understanding of the
current environmental problems as well as a better ability to manage sustainable
development issues, and balance environmental, social and economic
considerations. Mining schools should also act as change-agents for existing
mining and minerals processing facilities. They can do so by working with
industry and other stakeholders to understand the opportunities and constraints
for cleaner production and sustainable development and develop appropriate
strategies and tools for their implementation. Finally, mining schools can
provide a good example by adopting better environmental practices on campus, in
the operation and maintenance of buildings and other facilities and in planning
and conducting research.
FRAMEWORK
The basic
level of environmental literacy required from all minerals graduates will, for a
growing number of positions, have to be complemented with specific environmental
knowledge relevant to the minerals discipline chosen (for example geology,
minerals economics, mining engineering or metallurgy). The job market
differentiates between minerals graduates with diverse environmental knowledge
and skills bases, and the factual environmental knowledge required depends on
yet another set of biophysical and chemical factors: features of the ore body,
ecosystem in the mining area and processing technologies employed. It is not
likely that one environmental education model will generally be applicable in
minerals education.
Mining
schools, and tertiary education institutions in general, face the challenge of
increasing environmental content while maintaining high professional and
technical standards in the core disciplines of geology, mining engineering and
metallurgy. A growing number of examples from mining schools around the globe
show that this challenge is manageable. Mining schools have developed
environmental education components in response to environmental health and waste
management concerns, often through trial and error with at least four different
course options.
*
Orientation courses: introductory courses to familiarise students
with sustainable development and the challenges and opportunities it poses to
the minerals industry;
*
Environmental integration in disciplinary courses: modification of existing
disciplinary courses to practice the application of disciplinary knowledge,
tools and skills to environmental projects;
*
Specialist environment courses: specialist courses that teach students
environmental science and engineering knowledge and the tools and skills as they
apply to mining and minerals processing;
*
Environment relevant interdisciplinary project work: group based project work on environment
relevant minerals projects to develop and practice problem solving skills.
A mixture
of several of the above will probably be most beneficial. Each approach calls
for different skills of the educators and other teaching resources.
The strengths and
weaknesses of the course options are:
*
Orientation courses are required to teach terminology and create
an environmental framework and benchmark on which to build in the rest of the
curriculum. Such orientation courses add to the current curricula, and as these
are already full, schools may not be eager to do so, in particular not in the
early stages of the curriculum.
*
Integration of environmental aspects into core disciplinary courses is
generally possible, for example by substitution of traditional problem-solving
tasks with environmental problem-solving tasks in mathematics and engineering.
Such integration of environmental content into disciplinary courses matches best
with the condition of not compromising on technical and professional standards,
but faces the risk of ‘whitewashing’ traditional course content for
environmental content. Environmental case work and problem-solving tasks need to
be available for the discipline lecturers, and those lecturers may require a
refresher course in environmental issues.
*
Specialist environmental courses in different areas (for example mine
planning and rehabilitation, environmental management systems) offer a good
opportunity for specialisation among graduates. Although it is clear that
specialist environmental courses would best suit those graduates seeking an
environmental position in the industry, it was felt that it would be extremely
valuable if all graduates undertook specialist environmental courses in at least
one (elective) subject area in the environmental field.
*
Integration projects, in which students collaborate to address a
real-world environmental issue, are extremely valuable for developing the
problem solving, team and communication skills, which rank high in employers’
recruitment criteria. Despite the general consensus on the importance of such
integration projects, there appears to be resistance to include these in
curricula, possibly because they are more demanding for teaching staff or due to
the non-availability of case materials or perceived disinterest from industry
and government to take part in the supervision of such projects.
The body
of experience has expanded and a transition towards a next generation of
environmental education in minerals curricula is set to take place. This next
generation would have to be driven by sustainable development and global
environmental concerns rather than by concerns for the local environmental
impacts of the minerals industry. Figure 2 shows how such a programme could
evolve. Environmental integration in core disciplinary courses is the foundation
for the successful environmental literacy programme. The orientation and
specialist courses are supplementary; the orientation courses for providing a
framework which can link environmental aspects arising from the disciplinary
courses, and the specialist courses for providing an opportunity to interested
students to further specialise in selected environmental impact areas or
environmental tools. Moreover, integration projects, aimed at practising
interdisciplinary problem solving and communication skills, can only succeed
once students undertaking the project have a solid foundation in their
disciplinary fields.
NEXT
STEPS
Leading
mining and minerals processing companies endeavour to employ mining and minerals
graduates that are committed to environmental protection, regardless of whether
they take up an ‘environmental’ or a ‘non-environmental’ position. The challenge
for mining schools is to modify curricula in such a way that environmental
awareness and literacy are promoted, without compromising technical and
professional quality in the key disciplines. The changes should be consistent
with staff capabilities and regional industry needs. This calls for a review of
current course content, integration of environmental elements to the extent
feasible in the present curriculum structure and existing course units, and
inclusion of new environmental orientation and specialisation units. Industry
and government representatives are best placed to provide input into this review
process.
There are
several ways in which mining schools and educators can respond to the need to
raise the environmental literacy of their students. The most critical of these
is to change the way that disciplinary courses are taught such that
environmental considerations are an integral part. For example, mine planning
should include a discussion of how to minimise environmental impacts over the
lifecycle of the mining site. Likewise, mathematics, engineering and economic
tools can be taught using environmental examples rather than the traditional
homework and design problems. Also important is project work by teams of
students on real-world environmental issues of the mining industry, to teach
environmental skills and practice decision making on complex, diverse and
disputable issues under joint supervision of educators and industry
representatives.
In order
to make the above changes, the following can be recommended for the different
stakeholders involved:
*
Educators and mining schools should show leadership in increasing the
environmental literacy component of the undergraduate and postgraduate
programmes they offer. Most importantly, this requires willingness to change
curriculum structure, course content and delivery modes, in response to industry
needs and changes in government requirements and in public perceptions and
expectations.
*
Industry and industry associations should foster environmental literacy
programmes in mining and minerals education, by providing access to case work
and industry best practice and by providing support, through sponsorship or
staff delegation, for the design, delivery and supervision of environmental
literacy programmes.
*
Government can assist in overcoming the resource limitations faced by
academia, by providing access to case work and best practice in environmental
policy and by providing support for the development of teaching and learning
resources for environmental literacy programmes in minerals
education.
*
Professional associations and international organisations can play a
catalytic role in the exchange of teaching and learning experience and resources
between academia, and thereby assist individual mining schools and educators in
overcoming the resource limitations they face in increasing the environmental
content of their courses.
Academia and mining
schools should not neglect mining and minerals professionals currently employed
in industry, nor small-scale mining companies that are not in a position to
employ minerals graduates. It is recommended that mining schools develop
customised short course programmes for small-scale mining entrepreneurs, with
combinations of training and on site technical assistance, and deliver such
programmes in collaboration with industry associations and relevant government
bodies
The key
challenge lies in ensuring that environmental concepts are incorporated into
core mining and minerals topics, such as mine planing, minerals processing,
etc.. However, in many cases, new environmental content will need to be added to
the curricula (for example. new environmental case studies and problem solving
tasks in disciplinary courses and
orientation or specialist courses). This will only be possible by
shortening or eliminating part of current course content. Although this is
inevitable and even necessary to keep curricula up to date, the tensions this
creates in mining schools are an important barrier for increasing the
environmental content of minerals education.
The
Internet offers many opportunities for enhancing teaching and creating new
learning opportunities. The removal of distance barriers will help educators
everywhere, though infrastructure will be a barrier, or at least a hurdle, in
some countries. For industry staff in remote locations, the Internet has the
potential to offer completely new possibilities for
learning.
Whether
or not mining schools succeed in delivering environmental literacy programmes
that add to the skills and knowledge of their graduates and hence increase
graduates’ employability, depends largely on the resources available. Access to
and support from (local) industry is crucial, as is the availability of teaching
resources (textbooks, lectures, audiovisuals and case work). In particular,
there is huge potential for networking and sharing of information resources.
However, this cannot take place without an investment in the development of
staff resources at mining schools.
By Professor Rene
Van Berkel
CSBP
Chair in Cleaner Production, John Curtin International Institute, Curtin
University of Technology, GPO Box U 1987, Perth WA 6845, Australia, Tel: (+ 61
8) 9266 4240. Fax: 9266 4071.
Email:vanberkr@resources.curtin.edu.au
This
paper has been compiled from the results of a recent workshop ‘Environmental
Literacy in Minerals Education’, organised jointly by the United Nations
Environment Programme and the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western
Australia, held at the John Curtin International Institute, Curtin University of
Technology, Perth, Australia. The author acknowledges the inputs from the
participants to this workshop, although the final collation of the discussion
results into this article has been the author’s sole responsibility. A full list
of references is available on request.