DEVELOPMENT OF A DECISION SUPPORT TOOL TO MEASURE AND MANAGE GREENHOUSE GASES (GHGs) EMISSION FROM THE MINING INDUSTRY

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Air emissions including greenhouse gases have been under critical examination with the new emission caps through Canada. Industries including mining, petroleum, and cement sectors are facing the major challenges to further optimize or extend their systems and reduce emissions. Mining operations emit various types of pollutants and greenhouse gases that must have significant impacts on both local and regional ecosystems. In this project, we propose novel systems engineering analysis tools to generate optimized solutions for reduction of greenhouse gases with practical application to mining sector. The proposed research collaborates with a Canadian mining company to develop a customized life cycle assessment (LCA) and optimization model (OM) considered as an innovative R&D task to support decisions in mining activities. LCA of gold mining comprises of four phases Goal and Scope, life cycle inventory analysis for greenhouse gases in mining sector, impact assessment and interpretation. The environmental burdens and impacts quantified at stage of LCA, represent an input into a new optimization model to generate and examine desirable, acceptable, and tolerable emission scenarios for different operation scenarios in mining, i.e., the least emission, the maximum possible production, and the optimal suggestions from the model. A graphic user interface will also be developed and tested with the involvement of engineers in a Canadian mining company.