MINING SAFETY
Te mining industry is currently indispensable for meeting today’s energy requirements and can play a fundamental role in many national economies. It must, however, satisfy environmental requirements and the indiscriminate exploitation of limited resources cannot be considered at the expense of future generations. Tis is why the mining industry has a big role to play in ensuring sustainable development. A new ISO sub-committee on
mining reclamation management (ISO/TC 82/SC 7) has recently been created to develop International Standards that can help minimise the potential long-term damage from mining activities, thus enhancing the quality of life of residents living in a mining area and helping to improve the relationship between the mining industry and local residents. ISO (International Organization for
Standardization) is an independent, non-governmental membership organisation and the world’s largest developer of voluntary International Standards.
Te driving forces behind the new mining standards are Professor Sun Joon Kim and Reinhard Reinartz. Professor Sun Joon Kim is chair of ISO technical Subcommittee ISO/ TC 82/SC 7, Mine reclamation management. He works for the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Engineering at Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea Reinhard Reinartz, chair of ISO/TC 82, has a Mining Engineering degree from RWTH Aachen, Germany Professor Sun Joon Kim, states: “Te antagonism between the developers, who put the priority on profit, and the local residents concerned about environmental destruction and damage to local communities can sometimes grow into a conflict that is beyond reasonable mediation. International
Standards for mining reclamation management can be beneficial as these internationally agreed guidelines help avoid excessive claims or profits from one side, leading to a win-win situation.” As Reinhard Reinartz, chair of ISO/
TC 82, Mining, explains: “Mining reclamation is a very wide field; generally, it includes the ongoing and subsequent reintegration of the mining-affected areas into the environment during and after the end of mining activities. Many topics have to be considered with a long-term view, such as hydrology, contamination levels of water, tailings, soil and slope stability, deconstruction of buildings, etc.”
Future standards Developing standards in the mining sector is a big challenge and many of the existing regional standards will serve as positive examples to be built on at the global level. Tis will be one of the future tasks of the ISO technical committee. In this regard, Professor Sun Joon Kim says: “Te aim of standardisation of mining reclamation management is not to define special technologies or criteria, but to suggest a general guideline that can be applied universally. Under this general guideline, it can be broken down in more detailed fields and standards that meet each situation can be developed; if necessary, special situations must be standardised separately.” Reinhard Reinartz clarifies: “Te first and most important step is for ISO/TC 82 to identify and understand in detail these different needs; then we will be able to identify common ground with other topics and fields, making sure we are not isolating issues. For this reason, we extensively liaise with related ISO technical committees, especially in the field of machinery.
developers, who put the priority on profit, and the local residents concerned about environmental destruction and damage to local communities can sometimes grow into a conflict that is beyond reasonable mediation.
T
Professor Sun Joon Kim, chair of ISO/TC 82/SC 7
he antagonism between the
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