Published on June 07, 2018.-

Our national geology and mining service (Sernageomin) defines Mining Environmental Liabilities as “that abandoned or paralyzed mining site, including its waste, that constitutes a significant risk to the life or health of people or to the environment. As of the entry into force of Law 19,300 on General Bases of the Environment, the Environmental Impact Assessment System was established, mining operations had to incorporate environmental considerations into their processes.

The classification of a Mining Environmental Liability depends mainly on the magnitude of the risk, therefore not every mining operation in closure constitutes a Mining Environmental Liability, they present different levels of risk, for example at the level of safety and in the form of contamination of ecosystems where the mining activity is located. Contamination by arsenic, cyanide, and heavy metals can come mostly from tailings and wastewater. In turn, the safety risk is given by the physical stability of the remaining facilities such as tailings dams.

As for example a tailings deposit such as an abandoned dam without a proper closure, presents a high physical instability of its retaining wall, the magnitude of consequence could be catastrophic in the case of a high intensity seismic movement that causes the wall to collapse. releasing the tailings to the middle devastating everything in its path.

Source: https://bit.ly/2sFK62V