Partnership & Community Engagement

Sustainability & Culture: Climate change for the long term

Balancing the Mining Equation: Conundrum or Opportunity?

Resa Furey Stantec

LM

Lauren Meyer Stantec

SP

SATJEET PANDHER Stantec

Abstract

Is the moral responsibility of mining sustainably a conundrum so difficult as to be impossible? Or is it an opportunity in disguise? When done properly, integrating sustainability into projects isn’t difficult, nor does it add cost— rather it’s a collection of practices and solutions that reduces waste and drives profitability. Implementing designs that maintain value of financial, manufactured, human and natural capitals allow mine owners and engineers to strike a balance between meeting the needs of today and of the future. With this mindset the Sustainable Mining by Design^TM (SMbD) framework was created out an absence for this guidance in the industry. Whether applied to a new mine, to optimizing an existing operation, or to a facility preparing for closure, opportunities for the greatest positive impact occur early in the design process and fosters the ability to transform ESG related risks into opportunities.

This presentation will describe the SMbD framework, its value and usefulness, and how it can be operationalized. It will provide examples where the approach has turned a conundrum into an opportunity.

Published in CIM CONNECT 2025 Montréal

Publisher X-CD Journal

Date of Conference May 3–7, 2025