Environmental quality assessment of mining projects: an approach

This paper attempts to quantify the environmental quality of a mining project site by assigning weights to each environmental component, depending on its relative contribution to the overall environmental quality. The final computed score is a single numerical value that defines the status of the environment. A real-life example of the West Bokaro Mining Complex has been included to illustrate the methodology. It is felt that organizations should adopt the proposed idea in their corporate environmental policy for evaluating the environmental quality of their industrial sites. Ongoing mining projects, which are site-specific and which require solutions based upon the dominant local environmental conditions, can easily be evaluated by the proposed methodology. The empirical index determined can be utilized in designing each operating mine or industrial unit. The proposed methodology has the attributes of simplicity, innovativeness, and easy applicability under typical field conditions, which in turn facilitates quick decision-making.