Quantitative evaluation of ecological and environmental impacts caused by future mining

Abstract

Mineral resources are served as critical parts of socioeconomic development. Nevertheless, mining activities will inevitably bring some ecological and environmental impacts. Quantifying such impacts has become an increasingly vital need in the future. A dynamic framework of quantifying eco-environmental impact for mining based on economic monetary terms is creatively set up utilizing ecosystem service loss and environmental impact with 15 mutually independent indicators, which was applied to the Western Guangdong Gold Deposit Belt (WGGDB). The research results indicate that the Huangnikeng gold deposit has the slightest eco-environmental impact (1,763,800 yuan per year), and the Hetai mine has the highest impact (3,600,900 yuan per year). In addition, these results also reveal that ecosystem service loss and environment impact value per ton could play a significant role in making judgments on the priority for development of mines. Ultimately, the quantitative method proposed for eco-environmental impact in this study provides a new visualization perspective to promote our understanding of sustainable development and mining activities in the future.

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