Assessing global land requirement for surface copper mining

Most available LCA-tools and databases still lack reliable information on the extent of land used for processing and supplying raw materials like minerals I and metals. The amount of land disturbed by facilitating these resources which are of vital interest for the development of every modern society can be used as a key indicator for a number of sustainable development issues associated with a mining activity. In this work, a new methodical approach for estimating land requirement for surface copper mining operations is introduced. For the reference year 1998; facts and figures concerning global land requirement for surface copper mining operations are presented. The work closes with a short discussion and gives an outlook to forthcoming research.