For a few days in mid-September, Halifax, Nova Scotia, became the world’s centre for geochemical expertise when the International Conference on Acid Rock Drainage (ICARD) convened there. Given the interruption caused by the global pandemic, and that the conference happens only every three years, this was the first in-person event since 2018’s meeting in Pretoria, South Africa, so there was a lot of ground to cover.
And the ground has shifted. Charles Dumaresq, vice-president of science and environmental management at the Mining Association of Canada, noted in the opening day panel that a series of high-profile tailings dam failures has trained the attention of regulators, operators and the broader public on the geotechnical risks associated with mines and legacy sites, which has the potential to divert resources away from addressing geochemical concerns.
Nevertheless, Dumaresq and many other presenters made it clear through more than 140 presentations that an enormous amount of progress has been made over the last decades to predict and address both acid rock drainage and other water-related risks at mine sites.
Perhaps the most significant advancements in the recent past have been in the realm of biological processes. Portable and cost-effective genomics tools can now be deployed to better understand what life—from large mammals to bacteria—is present around a mine site, how these animals and organisms respond to chemical factors and how microorganisms might be used for mitigation and remediation in the future.
Several case studies featured in the proceedings, including from the Giant mine near Yellowknife, the Faro mine in Yukon and multiple presentations detailing the ongoing work at the Elk Valley Resources operations in British Columbia to reduce the selenium released into the environment there.
The combined cost of remediation of just these three sites will likely be over $10 billion, far more than was ever budgeted for cleanup. This, Dumaresq noted, is one of the fundamental challenges that the mining industry faces, which is how the current practice of costing projects using net present value fails to account for the full cost of closure.
Ultimately, the interdisciplinary approach to addressing acid rock drainage, and other mine water challenges highlighted at the event, need to extend beyond chemistry and biology to include practitioners versed in finance. Chris Kennedy, director of water at Teck Resources, stressed that any fundamental change to how mining operations determine their priorities, environmental or otherwise, cannot happen without including the insights and expertise of those whose decision making is driven by concern for metrics like net present value.
When Kennedy made this point before the crowd of geochemists, he downplayed it as perhaps being a “silly” comment, yet when any innovative approach is brought before senior leadership, it must be able to answer not just “will it work?”, but because it is competing with countless other initiatives, “can you sell it?”
