Spence
Spence
Spence Mine
Section: IP-8IMIN-8V1
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1. Introduction
Around 1964, what was called the 'Chileanization' of mining took place when
the Chilean state associated with North American capitals, which implied a great boom of
production. However, this process of state intervention in the exploitation and
production of themining activities continued progressively until culminating in
thenationalization of large miningwhen, through Law 17.450 in 1971, the
The state took charge of the most important mines in the country. Just 6 years later, in
1977, through theDecree Law No. 1,759,the military regime allowed for the incorporation of
foreign capitals, generating a shared exploitation system, even when
Some of the nationalized mines remained in the hands of the State, as was the case.
de Chuquicamata,El Salvador, Andean andThe Lieutenant.
A key fact for the environmental impacts caused by mining was the
promulgation, in 1974, of Decree Law 600 on the Foreign Investment Statute. Said
decree, by structurally promoting investment by substantially lowering rates
taxes and generating equal treatment for national and foreign companies,
made that between the years 1974 and 1983 the levels of foreign investment in mining
they will reach historical peaks. As a result of this "liberation", a
strong expansion of the activity that influenced, directly, the generation of
important environmental impacts, which gradually gained notoriety
until they become unsustainable.
It was not until 1990 that the authorities, within the framework of greater sensitivity
due to the issue, they began to discuss possible measures to stopthe impact
environmentalof mining activity. Initially, the discussion focused on the
atmospheric pollution from smelters and in tailings ponds.Cases
emblematicit was the Ventanas foundry, whose abundant black smoke was visible.
many kilometers away, and the El Salvador mine, which discharged its tailings into the sea.
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The previous cases were also added to the systematic destruction of properties and
agricultural regions, along with the pollution of irrigation channels.
Summary
The purpose of this report is to disclose and provide the required information.
by the teacher the way Minera Spence of the Australian company BHP operates
its installation located in the Sierra Gorda commune in the 2nd region of Antofagasta at
an approximate height of 1600 m.a.s.l. various points of interest will be announced,
specifically and placing greater emphasis on its environmental management system and how
mitigate the impact that the metallurgical mining process causes to the environment since
on Genesis. Contemplating its hydrometallurgical process plant.
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3. General objective
Investigate the environmental problems generated by exploitation and processing of
minerals for the production of copper cathodes from BHP's Spence mining operation.
As well as the mitigation and control measures that this issue entails.
4. Specific Objective
Environmental management system of Spence mining iso 14001
In the international aspect, the first principles and foundations with a view to policies
environmental was at the United Nations conference on the human environment in
Stockholm 1972, which was used as a basis for the mitigation procedures
environmental with which it was the first step for future policies of the time.
In Chile, environmental policies took shape through the Rio Summit of 1992.
Brazil where the contamination of hazardous waste was specified. Samples were taken
foundations of the summit, but not all in their entirety, by President Patricio
Aylwin, which led to the approval of law 19.300 in 1994 that would establish an environmental institution.
non-existent to date, having collateral relation with law 20.173 in 2007 creation
from the Ministry of the Environment changing the foundations of Law 19,300.
Preventive principle
The principle "the polluter pays"
Participatory principle
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6. Theoretical foundation
6.1.Preventive principles
To explain it more explicitly, what the constitution states we will separate the
two actions: firstly, 'the right to live in an environment free of
pollution is the duty of the state to ensure that this right is not affected.
It is understood that the state takes responsibility and must take positive actions to
the good of the environment since the importance of the word to safeguard becomes
reference to demanding action from the state regarding people's health, that is, that it
seek a pleasant environment where one can live under normal conditions according to the
constitution. Furthermore, on the contrary, according to law 19.300, the state does not
responsible for environmental conditions but seeks to mitigate and control them
conditions that it adjusts to prevent, it is not about creating a normal environmental setting but rather
the 'State must act to restore the situation prior to the impact' with this
It leads us to interpret that the mandating entity, the state, will restore the conditions.
prior to the activity generated by industrial billing or activity performed
according to the general environmental framework of law 19.300.
Regarding guardianship, it is about the follow-up of prevention according to the law and the
The constitution clearly states that preventive welfare is personal to each individual, from
From a legal point of view, guardianship is understood as a special protection; for
that this would mean that the state should take charge of the guardianship of the good of the
nature would take care of regulating this, the management system
integrated of the SEIA in which it would measure the parameters to name the points of
prevention.
different opinions were proclaimed regarding the rights in the constitution, which in the
the time when different parts of the country began to industrialize and there were various trials in
courts for pollution such as hydropower plants, mining exploitations,
and all kinds of polluting activity. From this, the communities and environment
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they demanded for good living without pollution and the president became active and created a
Environmental bill known today as law 19.300.
for them, the foundations of law 19,300 were specified in the SEIA as essence that
every activity necessary from a social or economic point of view will lead to the future
a negative environmental impact, meaning that in each project before being
executed, the negative environmental impact it will cause must be taken into account.
time due to the prevention required, such effects must be taken into account,
characteristics or circumstances for their respective evaluation and grading. Starting from
the objective of the law and its main basis take preventive considerations into account in the
which will be evaluated by the administration to finally make a decision.
From this point, investors in your project must internalize the costs.
environmental aspects in their production and utilities so that they are taken into account
the costs of prevention are equally requested in this principle to ensure
social responsibility that allows for the full repair of the damages inflicted on
environment.
With this, the SEIA aims for investment in prevention and mitigation measures to...
pollution that does not cover completely and therefore in response to a pollution the
the company or project of order or service must pay for each spill or
pollution produced.
6.4.Participatory principle
In this principle, the participatory judgment that society has in projects applies.
with those that effectively produce pollution, that is to say, that society and
communities and third parties that do not have direct contact with this activity or project
they can participate for the participatory principle to take place.
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the way to address environmental issues is with the participation of everyone
interested citizens, at the appropriate level. At the national level, all
the person must have adequate access to information about the environment
that the authorities provide, including information about the materials and the
activities that pose danger in their communities, as well as the opportunity to
participate in decision-making processes. States must facilitate
and promote awareness and public participation by making information available to
disposition of all. Effective access to the procedures must be provided.
judicial and administrative, among these the compensation for damages and the resources
relevant. It is through this principle that consensus is established at the level
the importance of public participation in decision-making internationally.
Through Law 19.300, it makes legal proceedings and environmental trials the
direct or indirect persons are informed about environmental pollution that
produce the economic activity and participate in the trials with the power to demand
procedures and even report an environmental impact for this purpose it seeks to have
a control of more massive indicators since the political constitution supports it
The state's right is to ensure optimal conditions for people and the
nature.
Furthermore, it has the characteristic of being eminently technical and specialized, for
how much it delivers its administration to a specialized body of the State such as
the Environmental Assessment Service (SEA), which acts as the responsible service
of its administration.
This procedure is based on presenting the executor with the facts in a predictive manner.
of pollution so that the competent service for its evaluation has
present the types and ways to combat pollution and have a record of it
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management system implemented for optimal mitigations so that the
guardianship and social and environmental context should be participatory.
In law 19.300, article 10 states that before executing or modifying the project, one must
It must pass the environmental assessment, therefore we took care of the above.
to anticipate environmental impacts through the organization's management system
Competent in this is evaluated and two paths are taken depending on what it dictates.
project on what type of road it wants to optimize its environmental impact.
In the environmental declaration, the company or executing party in charge must sign an oath.
about the activities of the procedures or modifications where it is a document
descriptive, the difference between the declaration and the environmental study is that the former
it lies in the greater environmental impact that the former entails.
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Article 11 is an important point as it has through the mentioned avenues
to dictate or inform about the so-called 'significant impacts' or 'effects
"significant adversities" with this, the aim is to obtain information so that the
activities do not have prejudices against the health of the society or population where they are executed
the project since the state has to look after the health of the people, it also
they harm tourism, customs, cultural heritage, considering archaeology
and paleontology.
In this part of the research, we will detail the differences between the two paths.
of environmental declarations where each of them is differentiated for the SEIA according to
Law 19.300
project_description
Determination and justification of the area of influence and general description
Description and justification of the baseline area
Background that justifies the non-existence according to article 11
Detailed descriptions of adverse effects according to article 11
Mitigation measures plan
Repair and compensation
Prevention and contingency plan
Environmental variable monitoring plan
•Compliance plan for applicable environmental legislation, including permits
sectoral environmental
Voluntary environmental commitments, if they are considered
Project description
Determination and justification of the area of influence and general description
Background justifying the non-existence according to article 11
Contingency prevention plan and emergency plan
Compliance plan for applicable environmental legislation, including permits
sectoral environmental
Voluntary environmental commitments, if considered
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In light of what has been described according to the two pathways, it is important to emphasize that the description of
The base area is very important because it is where the first instance will have the
first pollution and it is there that the first ones can be grounded
predictions and mitigation measures and controls stated in article 11 of the law.
It is important that the environmental impact study has a high resource cost due to
what companies always choose to do is to optimize resources for
environmental declaration, the difference is that in the declaration there is an oath in
the one responsible for the execution must speak with faithful and worthy data for not
he could go to an environmental court in which he is subjected for breaching the law
19.300.
7.3.Crushing
process by which the size of mineralized rocks is reduced
crushing them in machines called crushers and mills. The extracted material passes
by primary, secondary, and tertiary crusher, until reaching sizes of less than
½ inch.
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7.4.Agglomeration
The agglomeration process aims to prepare the mineralized material.
for leaching, ensuring a good permeability coefficient of the solution.
7.5.Leaching
solid-liquid extraction is a unit operation that consists of the separation of
one or more substances (solutes) contained in a solid matrix (carrier phase),
usually powdered, through the use of liquid solvents.
7.6.Solvent extraction
method of separating one or more substances from a mixture using
of solvents. An organic resin is used in the copper extraction process.
diluted in an organic solvent (paraffin), which is mixed by stirring with the
PLS solution resulting from leaching.
7.7.Electro-extraction
Electrowinning is a process of electrometallurgy, through which it
recover the copper that is concentrated in the copper solution (which is
obtained from the leaching process) with the purpose of producing high purity cathodes
of copper (99.99%), highly valued in the market.
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They are the controls that must be carried out on our processes to prevent the
pollution or reduce its environmental impact.
Before sending the report, the person responsible must inform the environmental specialist,
which will be carried out:
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9.2. What is ISO 14001:2015?
This company adheres to this environmental policy so that its mining processes
metalworkers have the least possible consequence within the entire ecosystem that
surrounds it. What they said in their last statement was 'our goal is to achieve
zero harm to people, our communities, and the environment, working
with the best practices in the industry" - (Mía Gous, general manager of Spance mine).
Continuous improvement.
The protection of the environment.
Compliance with legal requirements.
• Letter of values and 'Our BHP Requirements'.
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Sustainability development policy statement issued by managers - Spence mine
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Groundwater monitoring
Water recycling program
Communication program (raise awareness about saving)
7. Air Quality
7.6. What is PM10?
Particulate matter (PM) is an atmospheric pollutant that corresponds to
those liquid or solid particles that are suspended, which are
they can be classified according to their diameter. MP10 corresponds to those particles that
they have a diameter of 10 microns (µm).
7.7. What are its impacts?
The MP10 penetrates throughout the respiratory system up to the lungs,
producing irritations and affecting various diseases.
Poor management could pose a risk to people's health.
In this way, poor management can also pose a risk in the
operational continuity of Spence.
At Spence, we have fixed and mobile monitoring stations that are located
distributed in different areas, these stations use different equipment for the
real-time measurement of the concentration of PM10 (µm/m3).
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8. Control systems and pollutant treatment
Spence develops a table of parameters where they keep track of their goals and
purposes to fulfill where one of them is to generate controlled operations that
minimize damage to the environment.
• Organic sludge
dry treaties
PTAS
Industrial • Containers, bags and • For your deposit, they are used
plastics. yellow containers,
they can be plastics and/or
• Lumber.
metallic, or hoppers.
• Highlights of
• In case of putting into bags,
iron, glass and
the color of must be respected
metals.
the classification using
• PVC pipes and yellow bags.
HDPE.
• Air filters.
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• Straps
carriers.
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11.2. What is a hazardous chemical substance?
It must be ensured at each storage point the existence of the label that ...
indicate the substance of greatest risk.
Define the person responsible for storage and the tasks of the committed staff.
Have a record of the stored chemical substances.
Control of entries and exits.
Keep the order and cleanliness of the facilities.
No eating or drinking in the workplace.
Segregate according to hazard groups.
Respect existing signage, no smoking, evacuation routes, etc.
Use specific PPE for transportation, storage, and handling.
Read the product safety data sheet.
In case of emergency, act according to what is defined in the procedure.
emergency.
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Environmental challenges of the company
9.6.Goals and objectives
Within the company, various objectives have been proposed in order to reduce
social and environmental factors, which is why some programs were implemented
to be able to meet these goals.
Objectives
Environmental goals
4.- 5.992 ML
Programs
1.- Dust control in mine and plant areas, follow-up on SIGA HSE platform
10. Conclusion
Our society fights for social and environmental well-being day by day, but we
it remains an unknown whether we can extract and utilize natural resources without
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to carry our communities and environment. In our opinion, it
as long as they do not affect the various communities that are present
surroundings, like its native fauna. For this reason, various measures are implemented in Spence.
environmental protection systems that they adopt voluntarily. Due to
that the current Chilean regulations are too precarious and too ambiguous
together with the legal system. As future engineers, we must know how to manage waste.
and control all functions in such a way that we do not harm our surroundings.
11. Bibliography
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