Montanuniversität Leoben

The 2nd MIREU SLO Workshop with the theme ‘SLO and Regional Development Perspectives’ took place in Leoben, Austria on 24-25 October 2018. This workshop was the second in a series of stakeholder workshops organised in the MIREU project. The main objective of this workshop was to explore the linkages between social license to operate (SLO) and regional development.

The second day of the workshop was concluded with four parallel breakout sessions on topics related to specific regional questions. One of these topics was ‘Environment’, which focused on the most common environmental topics related to mining and their connection to SLO.

Breakout Discussion

This workshop session focused on what the key environmental topics related to mining are and what their connection to SLO is. The session built on the presentation given by Herwig Schuster/Greenpeace. The discussion in the session focused on barriers linked to the environment; enabling factors, that is how mining contributes to and improves environmental factors; how the environment is linked to SLO; and how the environmental factors of mining are linked to regional development.

The participants found that the mining industry contributes to sustainability and the circular economy through, e.g. re-mining of waste materials and urban mining. The mining industry also adapts different innovations to address environmental impacts, such as underground mining, more efficient processes, zero discharge operations, etc. Further, the energy transition and the move towards renewable energy is dependent on the mining sector, as many of these green technologies require access to a broad range of raw materials. According to the participants, the most significant barrier for the mining industry, which is related to the environment, is the competition for land use. Other barriers include environmental accidents and their legacies; the fact that the mining industry still have a large impact on many environmental factors, such as climate change, water quality and biodiversity; and finally, that there are some recognised ‘no-go areas’ such as the Arctic and Antarctica.

How are then these environmental aspects of mining linked to SLO? The participants considered the fact that the monitoring of environmental aspects is done by the community an important link, together with the fact that governments need to be trusted to control permit conditions. The mining sector can contribute to SLO by ensuring environmental leadership of the mines, e.g. by adapting net positive impact commitments, and by raising the public awareness of raw materials. The mining sector can contribute to regional development from an environmental perspective through building shared infrastructure, such as water treatment plants and energy plants. It can also create better links with the processing of secondary raw materials and the downstream opportunities, as well as with artisanal mining (mainly outside Europe) to improve conditions in that field.

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Social License to Operate

Thu, 10/01/2019 - 09:00

Montanuniversität Leoben

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Future of EU mining regions collaboration

Hilary Webb — Fri, 26 Feb 2021 14:49:45 +0000

Future of EU mining regions collaboration Hilary Webb Fri, 26/02/2021 - 15:49

The Industrial modernisation S3P Mining industry and the CoMMER (ERRIN Task Force on Raw Materials) invite you to an online roundtable discussion on the future of the EU mining regions collaboration. It will be an opportunity to learn more about the initiatives supporting the networking of mining regions.

The online roundtable will take place on 4th March 2021 from 13:00 - 15:00 CET.

During the session, the S3P Mining Industry and the task force will be introduced as two sides of the same coin having a common objective to develop responsible EU mining. In addition, we will have an introduction to the H2020 project SCRREEN2 - Solutions for Critical Raw materials - a European Expert Network 2.

The meeting will the share aims and current status of these collaborations and to invite you to a brainstorming session exploring the good practices supporting and strengthening the EU mining regions collaboration. A more detailed agenda and instructions will be shared with registered participants from 1st March 2021 onwards.

Please register here before 18:00 CET on 3rd March, the link to join the meeting on Microsoft Teams will be sent on the morning of 4th March.

Agenda

The roundtable will be moderated by Ryan Titley, Director of Projects, ERRIN

13.00 - 13.05	*Opening and introduction*, Ryan Titley, Director of Projects, ERRIN
13.05 - 13.25	*Industrial modernisation S3P Mining industry – Supporting the development of the EU Regional Innovation Hubs of Responsible Mining & Metallurgy Business Solutions*, Ilkka Nykänen, partnership coordinator, Business Joensuu, North-Karelia, Finland and supported by the partners
13.25 - 13.45	*CoMMER, ERRIN Task Force on Raw Materials – supporting the regions in project making, policy shaping, partnering, and profiling,* introduction and background Juha Kaija, Geological Survey of Finland – GTK, MIREU project manager, and commented by the Brussels regional offices’ representatives
13.45 – 14.00	*CoMMER and SCRREEN2 - Synergies for improving the raw materials awareness across the EU regions,* W. Eberhard Falck, Vice-President, International Raw Materials Observatory
14.00 – 14.45	*Open roundtable* – moderated by the Ryan Titley, Director of Projects, ERRIN What are your expectations from the European regional collaboration? How the regions can operationalise their role in the implementation of the responsible mining and metallurgy industries? How to maximise the EU investments to develop sustainable regional and interregional mining ecosystems? How can regional cooperation promote a competitive mining & metallurgy sector and sustainable solutions? How the existing platforms Mining industry S3P and CoMMER can support each other?
14.45 – 15.00	*Conclusions and next steps,* Mika Riipi, County Governor, Lapland, Finland