Environmental catastrophes in the mining industry in Australia and the development of current management practices

Australia is one of the leading resource countries in the world characterised by highly productive, immensely competitive and intensively mechanised mining operations. Despite these attributes, the mining industry in Australia has made its fair share of environmental mistakes and has often met with public disapproval of its environmental performance. In this paper, a brief description of a case history is given, where mining of a polymetal pyrite ore over a 100 year period contributed $A4.00 billions to the local economy and created the greatest environmental disaster in the history of Australian mining. The paper also describes the evolutionary development of mining legislation controlling the environmental performance of mining operations from exploration to the mine rehabilitation stage using a consultative approach. This is supplemented by a pleasing initiative taken by the mining industry to develop a Code for Environmental Management adopted by some 80% of mining companies in Australia. It is hoped that these latest legislative and voluntary developments in environmental management practice will help mitigate the effects of any maior environmental incidents in the future.