Abstract

DE LA TORRE DE PALACIOS, LUIS. NATURAL RESOURCES SUSTAINABILITY: IRON ORE MINING. Dyna rev.fac.nac.minas [online]. 2011, vol.78, n.170, pp.227-234. ISSN 0012-7353.

In the present article, a new tool to determine environmental sustainability, the energy impact index (EII) was developed to classify different iron mine projects according to two main parameters including energy consumption and CO₂ emissions. The EII considers the characteristics of the mineral (such as the quality, size, hardness, iron ore grade, reducibility, mineral/waste rate, and type of deposit), mining processes (type of exploitation, ore processing, available technology), and transportation (distance to cover).

Keywords : Sustainability; iron; energy; CO₂ emissions.

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