Assessing the Environmental Impact of Mining - Holistic Data-Driven Approach for Quarrying Operations

Other conference contribution, 2023

Quarries can produce a series of environmental impacts, e.g. ground vibration, noise, dust, and air emissions. The DigiEcoQuarry project (DEQ), in which the research presented in this paper is framed, aims to digitalise quarries in Europe, enhancing their economic and environmental performance, safety aspects, and social acceptance. From the implementation of an integrated IoT system, a large amount of operational data is generated and collected, including, for example, drilling and blasting parameters, real-time positioning of the mobile fleet, driving speed, cycle times, distances, weather conditions (i.e. precipitation and sunshine time), and materials flow (extracted, transported, processed). It is expected that the analysis of this information, besides facilitating operational efficiency, allows the prediction of immediate and later environmental impacts with more frequency than traditional methods. Consequently, mitigation strategies can be improved, opening also the opportunity to adjust operational parameters to achieve a broader global efficiency. In this context, the objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review and analysis of the most frequent and relevant environmental aspects of quarries, with a focus on the local effects. From the evaluation conducted, these aspects were linked to certain characteristics and conditions that can be present in quarrying operations, providing a guide to identifying the main environmental challenges for different types of quarries. Moreover, this framework was applied to the sites participating in the DEQ project, revealing the major environmental concerns in each case. Finally, air emissions, dust emissions, and noise pollution were identified as the impacts with the highest potential for complementary estimation through machine learning or similar techniques based on operational data.