The Role of the Mining Industry in a Circular Economy A Framework for Resource Management at the Mine Site Level

The circular economy (CE) concept advocates drastically reduced primary resource extraction in favor of secondary material flowing through internal loops. However, it is unreasonable to think that society will not need any resources, for example, metals, from mining activities in the short, medium, or longer term. This article explores the role of the mining industry in transitioning to the CE and shows that mines can make significant progress if they apply the CE principles at the mine site level. Circular flows within the economy aim at keeping resources in use for as long as possible and limit final waste disposal. Likewise, operating mines for as long as minerals can be extracted at acceptable environmental costs, thus minimizing the loss of a nonrenewable resource, can be viewed as a contribution of the mining industry to CE objectives. To test this idea, we propose a framework where the conservation of nonrenewable resources is a core concern. The first part establishes a set of material flow indicators relevant to a mine project. The second part considers the entire mine's life cycle, in particular, the consequences of interruptions in activities on material losses. The framework is then illustrated by a case study of the Mount Morgan mine in Australia, where three distinct extractive strategies were applied throughout its history. The results from applying the framework show that proactive and preventive management of mining waste provides significant environmental benefits and generates value from mine waste. These outcomes illustrate that the concept of the CE can be applied in a practical manner to a mining operation.