A mine needs to operate profitably throughout the life of its resource and optimise returns to the shareholders, the community and the country to be sustainable, says engineering, management and specialist technical services group Aurecon mining infrastructure leader Andrew Keith.

Traditional mining and process plant planning and design primarily focus on facilities within the mine fence but, as mines become more remote in landlocked African regions, infrastructure needs to be increased, ore chains become longer and more complex, and the community impacted on extends well beyond the mine boundaries.

Consequently, the key to the sustainability of African mining operations lies beyond the pit and the traditional development approach. “One can loosely group the risks to the sustainability of new mines in remote Africa into delivered cost and licence to operate, says Keith.

Indications from research in Australia are that mine development enabling infrastructure is 70% or more of the total capital cost. In Africa, especially where locations are far from the coastline and have underdeveloped infrastructure, this proportion will be higher.

As the ore export to market and incoming mine supply logistics chains lengthen, they become more complex with an increased likelihood of needing to traverse difficult and, therefore, costly terrain.

Rising logistics and infrastructure cost dominance are driving the need to enhance mine development tools with energy and water optimisation to reduce the infrastructure costs associated with these critical inputs and logistics chain improvements.

The fundamental aim of such optimisation techniques is to increase mine project value by improving the output revenue generation in relation to the input cost trade-off, says Keith.

“This dynamic trade-off requires complex software, simulation and optimisation modelling skills and techniques. While the modelling comes at a cost, the benefits, in improved net present value and reduced costs to market over the mine operational life, significantly swamp the modelling costs.”

Similarly, as mines are increasingly located in less developed regions with limited infra- structure, the importance of community development and corporate social responsibility (CSR) increases.

The challenge is to obtain a social licence to operate by ensuring that communities are, at the very least, not motivated to disrupt the mine operations.

Historically, the approach has often been one of achieving regulatory compliance, especially for environmental and social impact. The new South African Mining Charter is indicative of a coming global trend making such compliance more stringent, particularly regarding community development.

Keith says there are considerable benefits to early community engagement and developing attitudes that go beyond tolerance of the project, or even “psychological identification”, where government and community defend the project against detractors.

As the logistics chains become longer, the definition of a mine’s “community” extends well beyond the mine boundary to all communities along the chain. Over such long distances, community relations and social licence to operate become paramount in keeping the transport chain open and operating.

Minor disagreements, if not well handled, can escalate with major consequences if there is disruption to the ore chain and no practical alternative owing to the long distances involved, says Keith.

The method of community involvement in mine and infrastructure development, especially through labour-intensive projects for low-tech infrastructure construction and maintenance, such as roads and mine housing, is proving to be an effective means of positive community engagement, CSR and developing community skills, as well as income generation beyond corporate, government or aid handouts.

The SUSOP (sustainable operations) methodology for sustainable development, developed by the Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Resource Processing, can assist strategy development and prioritisation of such programmes. This risk- and opportunity-based tool aims to identify options to improve the benefits of a mining project across the entire spectrum, from financial to community and environment.

“With Africa’s remote and limited development conditions requiring longer transport routes and increased mine infrastructure costs, as critical but potentially fragile links in the mine operation, we can expect increasing industry focus on both cost and social licence optimisation into the foreseeable future,” concludes Keith.