Minerals Education

Environmental considerations and the sustainable development agenda are changing the mining and minerals processing industries. Society not only expects the minerals industry to run its operations with minimal environmental impact and rehabilitate its sites but also to make a positive contribution to reducing global environmental impacts such as climate change, protection of biodiversity and sustainable use of natural resources. Industry and government expect to employ minerals graduates that are acquainted with environmental and sustainable development issues, and can contribute to developing appropriate response strategies from a solid background in one of the mineral disciplines.

The ultimate objective of integrating environmental aspects in minerals curricula is to train mining professionals that have a proper understanding and appreciation for the potential environmental impacts of the mining and minerals processing industries. They are ‘environmental literate’ mining and minerals specialists, and not environmental specialists with a specialisation in mining and minerals processing.

The mining and minerals processing industries have tremendous potential for growth and in several minerals rich regions industry and governments are preparing for major production capacity expansion projects to meet demand, in particular from the rapidly expanding economies of developing and newly industrialising countries. In India for example, iron ore and coal production are forecasted to increase by at least 50% over the next three to five years. In Western Australia seven major mining and minerals processing projects were commissioned in the 1998/1999 financial year, with another five currently under construction and another 20 to 25 under consideration.

The potential growth of the sector is, however, endangered by public concerns about the environmental profile and responsibility of the mining and minerals processing industries. Public concern centres on health, safety and environmental impacts of mining and minerals facilities. The death toll of mining workers in South Africa for instance still fluctuates around a staggering number of 500 annually. Environmental concerns exist for both small and large scale mining operations, albeit of a different nature. The declining public trust in the mining and minerals processing industries affects growth opportunities in two distinct ways. First, approval processes for new ventures have become more complex, expensive and time consuming. Second, public concern about the mining industry impacts on the ability of the sector to attract high calibre graduates and professionals, who in turn are necessary to realise the planned expansions in an environmentally acceptable manner. A concerted effort by the mining and minerals processing industries, government, professional associations and the education sector is needed to consolidate and preferably even regain public trust.

Australia, and in particular Western Australia, is an example of a developed country with a large mining industry base and mining and minerals production are key sectors of the economy. There is the capacity to address environmental challenges and develop appropriate solutions for the specific climate and ecosystems in which mining and minerals processing takes place. Australian industry is committed to dealing with environmental issues in a socially acceptable manner, as evidenced by a recent survey of members of the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia. All respondents said their company has an environmental policy in place, and 80% of the companies actively disclose environmental information to the general public by means of public environmental reports, the Internet and/or newsletters. The different corporate attitudes to the environment are shown in figure 1. For only 5 % of the respondents, environment is an area where negative publicity has to be avoided. All others displayed corporate attitudes reflecting higher levels of environmental integration.

The mining and minerals processing industries have begun to respond to the growing public concern about its environmental impacts. The first efforts focused on management of hazardous substances and mining waste, but gradually efforts have expanded to cover issues such as water management, energy conservation and mine rehabilitation. Some companies have successfully adopted a proactive approach to prevent waste and emissions occurring in the first place, by means of changes in product specifications, modification of technology and equipment, and optimisation of process operation and management and planning procedures. This ‘cleaner production’ approach can, in the case of the mining industry, be achieved through optimisation of the ore-waste rock ratios by means of proper mine design, application of alternative leaching techniques to reduce the use of toxics (for example bioleaching) and recovery and utilisation of mining by-products (such as coal seam gas). There is growing evidence that cleaner production technologies and practices can reduce production costs in parallel with reduction of the environmental impacts of mining and mineral processing facilities.

Minerals curricula have changed over time in response to developments in technology, changes in ores excavated and minerals produced, and shifts in corporate and societal values. Requirements in terms of basic science and engineering, discipline-specific engineering, engineering design, industry experience and research projects have remained essentially the same over recent decades, with new requirements added in the fields of communication skills, management, minerals economics, information technology, mining law and environmental issues. In the 1970s environmental issues were included in some programmes, typically focusing on waste and tailings disposal, dam stabilisation, mine-site rehabilitation and water treatment. In the 1980s environmental issues were integrated in a growing number of minerals programmes and these expanded to incorporate topics such as total site environmental management, back-filling, acid rain, habitat maintenance and environmental legislation. In the 1990s the professional accreditation bodies started to require environmental elements in minerals programmes, with an increased shift in the environmental programmes to sustainable development.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) recently completed a survey of the state of environmental education in mining schools around the globe. The survey revealed three major trends. First, there has been a gradual increase of environmental content in existing minerals programmes, with many of the responding mining schools aiming at 15 to 20 % environmental content. Second, several of the leading international mining schools continue to de-emphasise mining and are starting to offer integrated courses in earth sciences. Third, several smaller mining schools have almost completely changed over to environmental curricula with mining only being a subject of specialisation towards the end of the undergraduate programme or through graduate studies. According to the survey, curricula are changing to incorporate the environment, but there are large variations between schools. In many cases, the change was only to add new environmental topics; integration was a much slower process.

The Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia surveyed the levels of environmental competency sought by its members. Employers expect a clear commitment from their new employees to resolve environmental problems, although recruitment criteria for graduates differ sharply between environmental and non-environmental recruits. In order of decreasing importance, recruitment criteria for environmental positions are:

* academic record;

* understanding of community and social implications and processes;

* communication and interpersonal skills; and,

* practical experience and technical knowledge and skills.

In recruitment for technical positions, companies select on the basis of:

* technical knowledge and skills;

* communication and interpersonal skills;

* academic record;

* practical experience;

* commitment to environmental protection; management skills; and,

understanding of environmental, community and social context and awareness of global environmental issues.

All recruits need to be committed to environmental protection, but the staff mining companies actually employed tended not to be as proficient as the companies preferred, in particular in areas like environmental auditing and project and work planning.

ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY CHALLENGES

Environmental issues in the mining and minerals industries have become increasingly complex and diverse during the last decade, and with the evolution of the environmental agenda, it is likely that such complexity and diversity will grow. Environmental literacy programmes in mining and minerals education should therefore aim to instil a basic level of environmental awareness, possibly best defined as “the ability to recognise potentially adverse impacts of mining and minerals processing on the environment, and contribute to their characterisation, minimisation and management”. To reach this level of environmental awareness, environmental literacy programmes need to combine the explanation of general environmental concepts (for example sustainable development, life cycle thinking), with factual insight in environmental impacts (for example climate change, biodiversity protection), and training in practical environmental management skills (for example environmental management systems, environmental impact assessment).

The critical task for environmental literacy programmes is to ensure that environmental considerations and sustainable development issues are an integral part of the mainstream curriculum instead of an elective add on of secondary importance in the overall curriculum. This situation can be achieved by including environmental implications and case studies in the core disciplinary courses, and substitution of part of the currently used problem-solving tasks by environmental problem-solving parts.

Given their focus on process integrated solutions that create both environmental and economic benefit, the ‘cleaner production’, ‘eco-efficiency’ and ‘sustainable development’ strategies are most appropriate for guiding the integration of environmental content into discipline specific courses. Environmental training for minerals graduates should therefore embrace those strategies, and promote the environmental and financial benefits that can be gained from a proactive and preventive environmental approach, for instance through sharing of industry best practice and cleaner production focused problem solving tasks. As in other sectors of industry and engineering education, universities can play a prominent role in facilitating the transition towards cleaner production and sustainable development.

The leading role universities and mining schools can take is multi-facetted and goes beyond the traditional teaching domain. Most importantly, mining schools should educate future industry leaders, who should have a better understanding of the current environmental problems as well as a better ability to manage sustainable development issues, and balance environmental, social and economic considerations. Mining schools should also act as change-agents for existing mining and minerals processing facilities. They can do so by working with industry and other stakeholders to understand the opportunities and constraints for cleaner production and sustainable development and develop appropriate strategies and tools for their implementation. Finally, mining schools can provide a good example by adopting better environmental practices on campus, in the operation and maintenance of buildings and other facilities and in planning and conducting research.

FRAMEWORK

The basic level of environmental literacy required from all minerals graduates will, for a growing number of positions, have to be complemented with specific environmental knowledge relevant to the minerals discipline chosen (for example geology, minerals economics, mining engineering or metallurgy). The job market differentiates between minerals graduates with diverse environmental knowledge and skills bases, and the factual environmental knowledge required depends on yet another set of biophysical and chemical factors: features of the ore body, ecosystem in the mining area and processing technologies employed. It is not likely that one environmental education model will generally be applicable in minerals education.

Mining schools, and tertiary education institutions in general, face the challenge of increasing environmental content while maintaining high professional and technical standards in the core disciplines of geology, mining engineering and metallurgy. A growing number of examples from mining schools around the globe show that this challenge is manageable. Mining schools have developed environmental education components in response to environmental health and waste management concerns, often through trial and error with at least four different course options.

* Orientation courses: introductory courses to familiarise students with sustainable development and the challenges and opportunities it poses to the minerals industry;

* Environmental integration in disciplinary courses: modification of existing disciplinary courses to practice the application of disciplinary knowledge, tools and skills to environmental projects;

* Specialist environment courses: specialist courses that teach students environmental science and engineering knowledge and the tools and skills as they apply to mining and minerals processing;

* Environment relevant interdisciplinary project work: group based project work on environment relevant minerals projects to develop and practice problem solving skills.

A mixture of several of the above will probably be most beneficial. Each approach calls for different skills of the educators and other teaching resources.

The strengths and weaknesses of the course options are:

* Orientation courses are required to teach terminology and create an environmental framework and benchmark on which to build in the rest of the curriculum. Such orientation courses add to the current curricula, and as these are already full, schools may not be eager to do so, in particular not in the early stages of the curriculum.

* Integration of environmental aspects into core disciplinary courses is generally possible, for example by substitution of traditional problem-solving tasks with environmental problem-solving tasks in mathematics and engineering. Such integration of environmental content into disciplinary courses matches best with the condition of not compromising on technical and professional standards, but faces the risk of ‘whitewashing’ traditional course content for environmental content. Environmental case work and problem-solving tasks need to be available for the discipline lecturers, and those lecturers may require a refresher course in environmental issues.

* Specialist environmental courses in different areas (for example mine planning and rehabilitation, environmental management systems) offer a good opportunity for specialisation among graduates. Although it is clear that specialist environmental courses would best suit those graduates seeking an environmental position in the industry, it was felt that it would be extremely valuable if all graduates undertook specialist environmental courses in at least one (elective) subject area in the environmental field.

* Integration projects, in which students collaborate to address a real-world environmental issue, are extremely valuable for developing the problem solving, team and communication skills, which rank high in employers’ recruitment criteria. Despite the general consensus on the importance of such integration projects, there appears to be resistance to include these in curricula, possibly because they are more demanding for teaching staff or due to the non-availability of case materials or perceived disinterest from industry and government to take part in the supervision of such projects.

The body of experience has expanded and a transition towards a next generation of environmental education in minerals curricula is set to take place. This next generation would have to be driven by sustainable development and global environmental concerns rather than by concerns for the local environmental impacts of the minerals industry. Figure 2 shows how such a programme could evolve. Environmental integration in core disciplinary courses is the foundation for the successful environmental literacy programme. The orientation and specialist courses are supplementary; the orientation courses for providing a framework which can link environmental aspects arising from the disciplinary courses, and the specialist courses for providing an opportunity to interested students to further specialise in selected environmental impact areas or environmental tools. Moreover, integration projects, aimed at practising interdisciplinary problem solving and communication skills, can only succeed once students undertaking the project have a solid foundation in their disciplinary fields.

NEXT STEPS

Leading mining and minerals processing companies endeavour to employ mining and minerals graduates that are committed to environmental protection, regardless of whether they take up an ‘environmental’ or a ‘non-environmental’ position. The challenge for mining schools is to modify curricula in such a way that environmental awareness and literacy are promoted, without compromising technical and professional quality in the key disciplines. The changes should be consistent with staff capabilities and regional industry needs. This calls for a review of current course content, integration of environmental elements to the extent feasible in the present curriculum structure and existing course units, and inclusion of new environmental orientation and specialisation units. Industry and government representatives are best placed to provide input into this review process.

There are several ways in which mining schools and educators can respond to the need to raise the environmental literacy of their students. The most critical of these is to change the way that disciplinary courses are taught such that environmental considerations are an integral part. For example, mine planning should include a discussion of how to minimise environmental impacts over the lifecycle of the mining site. Likewise, mathematics, engineering and economic tools can be taught using environmental examples rather than the traditional homework and design problems. Also important is project work by teams of students on real-world environmental issues of the mining industry, to teach environmental skills and practice decision making on complex, diverse and disputable issues under joint supervision of educators and industry representatives.

In order to make the above changes, the following can be recommended for the different stakeholders involved:

* Educators and mining schools should show leadership in increasing the environmental literacy component of the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes they offer. Most importantly, this requires willingness to change curriculum structure, course content and delivery modes, in response to industry needs and changes in government requirements and in public perceptions and expectations.

* Industry and industry associations should foster environmental literacy programmes in mining and minerals education, by providing access to case work and industry best practice and by providing support, through sponsorship or staff delegation, for the design, delivery and supervision of environmental literacy programmes.

* Government can assist in overcoming the resource limitations faced by academia, by providing access to case work and best practice in environmental policy and by providing support for the development of teaching and learning resources for environmental literacy programmes in minerals education.

* Professional associations and international organisations can play a catalytic role in the exchange of teaching and learning experience and resources between academia, and thereby assist individual mining schools and educators in overcoming the resource limitations they face in increasing the environmental content of their courses.

Academia and mining schools should not neglect mining and minerals professionals currently employed in industry, nor small-scale mining companies that are not in a position to employ minerals graduates. It is recommended that mining schools develop customised short course programmes for small-scale mining entrepreneurs, with combinations of training and on site technical assistance, and deliver such programmes in collaboration with industry associations and relevant government bodies

The key challenge lies in ensuring that environmental concepts are incorporated into core mining and minerals topics, such as mine planing, minerals processing, etc.. However, in many cases, new environmental content will need to be added to the curricula (for example. new environmental case studies and problem solving tasks in disciplinary courses and orientation or specialist courses). This will only be possible by shortening or eliminating part of current course content. Although this is inevitable and even necessary to keep curricula up to date, the tensions this creates in mining schools are an important barrier for increasing the environmental content of minerals education.

The Internet offers many opportunities for enhancing teaching and creating new learning opportunities. The removal of distance barriers will help educators everywhere, though infrastructure will be a barrier, or at least a hurdle, in some countries. For industry staff in remote locations, the Internet has the potential to offer completely new possibilities for learning.

Whether or not mining schools succeed in delivering environmental literacy programmes that add to the skills and knowledge of their graduates and hence increase graduates’ employability, depends largely on the resources available. Access to and support from (local) industry is crucial, as is the availability of teaching resources (textbooks, lectures, audiovisuals and case work). In particular, there is huge potential for networking and sharing of information resources. However, this cannot take place without an investment in the development of staff resources at mining schools.

By Professor Rene Van Berkel

CSBP Chair in Cleaner Production, John Curtin International Institute, Curtin University of Technology, GPO Box U 1987, Perth WA 6845, Australia, Tel: (+ 61 8) 9266 4240. Fax: 9266 4071. Email:vanberkr@resources.curtin.edu.au

This paper has been compiled from the results of a recent workshop ‘Environmental Literacy in Minerals Education’, organised jointly by the United Nations Environment Programme and the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia, held at the John Curtin International Institute, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia. The author acknowledges the inputs from the participants to this workshop, although the final collation of the discussion results into this article has been the author’s sole responsibility. A full list of references is available on request.