Abstract

CARMONA-GARCIA, Uriel; CARDONA-TRUJILLO, Harold  and  RESTREPO-TARQUINO, Inés. Environmental management, sustainability and competitiveness in mining. Contextualization of situation, and challenges of the approach through the life-cycle assessment. Dyna rev.fac.nac.minas [online]. 2017, vol.84, n.201, pp.50-58. ISSN 0012-7353.  https://doi.org/10.15446/dyna.v84n201.60326.

Mining is an economic activity that takes place in much of the Colombian territory. The total area granted for exploration and exploitation of mineral resources is 4'485.910 ha. The main mining activities in Colombia they are gold (1'743.721 ha) and coal (1'204.238 ha) [1], generating over 227,000 jobs, according to the Ministry of Mining [2]. The mining industry has been concerned with including elements of "sustainability" in its operations, seen these, as the contributions that the industry can make to Sustainable Development. The objective of this article is to analyze how the concept of sustainability in mining operations is involved, and how through the LCA as a tool of environmental management, it is possible to obtain a simplified and scientific approach to demonstrate progress in this area.

Keywords : Gold and coal mining; mining sustainability; environmental conflicts; cleaner production; life cycle assessment.

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