IN THE KNOW – JASON DESMOND

Our industry is built on experience. Each edition, we feature someone who knows their field inside and out, sharing the knowledge they’ve gained over many years. This month we hear from Jason Desmond, Director and Group Environmental Manager at Atlantech, who has worked across both environmental and operational roles. He shares what that experience has taught him about approvals, compliance and making environmental outcomes work on site.

Environmental management has emerged as a key aspect of mining operations, whereas in the past it may have been a secondary aspect or a nice to have. There is a greater understanding of the potential impacts of mining operations on the environment and how operations need to remain environmentally sensitive to continue operating, as well as have hope of future approvals.

The conditions imposed through local, state and federal approvals are increasing for nearly every approval. Large mine sites can no longer operate with one environmental team member and a small number of compliance conditions. There are now sites with large environmental teams ensuring compliance with hundreds of conditions.

Even simple mining modifications can involve a lengthy approval process. Governments continue to change and the goalposts continue to change throughout the process. Approval bodies come back with further requests for information, increasing uncertainty and cost for operations.

Aside from external compliance requirements, companies are also increasing their internal requirements and corporate governance, pushing operations even harder in this space.

In the past, gaining further approvals was about how well you completed your Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) / Environmental Assessment (EA) and associated studies. Now, a heavy factor in future approvals is the site’s performance history. This increases accountability on operations not to turn up only when the future approval is on the line, but day-to-day, every day.

Getting the approvals process right means involving external stakeholders from the beginning. They are commonly the ones commenting on or opposing approvals, so tailor the approval appropriately and ensure they are part of the journey.

One of the biggest lessons in the approvals process is the importance of forward planning. Once you get an approval, can the site reasonably and feasibly execute it? Involving experienced site personnel throughout the EIS / EA can help produce conditions that can actually be complied with during operations.

The challenge is that the decision-makers are not the ones mining the resource. Some environmental conditions are not reasonable or feasible. Practicality can be overridden by conditions that are not technically achievable.

Once an approval is in place, environmental compliance can be done well and ensure the relevant approval body is satisfied the mine is operating in accordance with its conditions. Good or best practice environmental performance goes above this. It is striving not only to meet compliance but to exceed it. This means the site is willing to go above the black and white of the legislation. Many refer to this as its social licence to operate.

Examples include predictive noise and air quality models, on-site monitoring equipment that provides an early warning before impacts are detected by off-site compliance monitoring equipment, predictive water balance models to prevent illegal water releases and Community Response Officers working proactively in sensitive areas within the community or reactively responding to complaints.

Good environmental performance also extends beyond the mine site. There are companies that have extraordinary community groups, such as cultural heritage groups with Aboriginal stakeholders. Several sites donate significant time, resources and financial support to community groups that rely on that support. Mining sites step in and really ingrain themselves in the community.

Sites that provide transparency and become an integral part of the community help remove the attitude of us versus them. It needs to be built on trust and respect, but so many sites do it well.

A lot of time can also be spent focusing on the operation within the confines of the mine and forgetting about the off-site impacts. Issues identified through community complaints can include noise from equipment operating in a sensitive area, excessive vehicle wheel dust, mine water being released illegally, lighting plants directed towards residences and odour carried by prevailing winds.

Unfortunately, human error can still play a major part on a site where you could have the best systems, controls and training in place. Whether it is taking a shortcut or not realising the environmental impacts of a decision, one small error can lead to an environmental issue or non-compliance.

The hardest part to take is that you can be seen by government or the community as only as good as your last performance. One error and all the other great work across an entire operation can be forgotten.

Leaning on my time in operational roles as a Surface Foreman and Open Cut Examiner (OCE), I know it is hard to be everywhere at once. Miners want to mine the resource and focus on their technical area. They have key performance indicators to meet and may not be aware of the environmental obligations that form part of that process. Environmental teams need to find a balance between compliance being met and mining the resource, which leads to jobs, state royalties and benefits for many more people outside the mine.

I have been fortunate throughout my career to spend time in different departments and roles and “walk in their shoes”, giving me a better understanding of their world. That experience has shown me environmental personnel need to support and empower operational teams, not act as a handbrake. Knowledge is power.

My advice to environmental personnel is to spend time in other departments and learn their functions and constraints. Be present at key meetings, crew talks, training days and safety interactions, and spend time driving around next to operational personnel such as OCEs. It is about learning side by side and building mutual knowledge and respect.

That shared understanding will become even more important as environmental expectations continue to change.

Early in my career, a major focus was mine rehabilitation and mining voids, essentially life after mining. Can forestry grow, can a house be built on the land, can mine voids support landfill sites or aquaculture? The future of mining operations at a local level was key. Now there is a larger focus on what you do not see on site and future environmental impacts on a global scale, including biodiversity value, greenhouse gas emissions and the economical benefits of mine closure.

When it comes to biodiversity, there are more stringent expectations on individual operations, with less focus on how an operation sits within its locality or broader business group. Operations are being pushed towards reduced mine footprints to minimise ecological impacts, with impacts offset through land-based offsets, credits bought on the open market or payments into a conservation fund.

Greenhouse gas emission profiling presents another challenge because mines are planning around an “invisible” emission factor rather than physical dirt or resources being moved from location A to location B. This makes mine planning so much more complex.

Gone are the days of miners mining the resource and commercial teams selling whatever product hits the surface. The resource is now being mined strategically around environmental compliance conditions. The aim is simple: make environmental knowledge practical and compliance conditions workable so miners can mine.