• Management of the resource base, ie
  • land access
  • efficiency in extraction and use
  • R&D strategies
  • community returns competitiveness
• Management of the environmental, economic and social impacts of exploitation of the resource base
  • decision making process
  • minimisation and monitoring of environmental impacts, Aboriginal aspects, regulation of extraction industries, eg. sand, gravel
  • 'Greenhouse' aspects
  • environmental valuations

The mining and minerals processing industries are major sources of Australia's export income; most of our consumer goods are made from, or are packaged in, products from the mining sector; mining is also an important basis for regional development and employment.

By their nature mining activities involve some degree of environmental disturbance, with potential implications for ecological systems and biodiversity. Processing of minerals can have a more substantial effect by generating pollution, including toxic wastes. The coal industry (as a major supplier to the electricity industry) and the mineral processing industry (as a major consumer of electricity) indirectly make a substantial contribution to greenhouse gas emissions.

The issue of potential climate change particularly concerns the coal industry, which is individually Australia's major export industry.

Competition between industry and conservation interests for particular areas of land has been intensifying in recent years and is likely to increase in the future. Mining has also often been at the edge of interaction between economic development and Aboriginal communities and culture and the question of land rights for Australian Aborigines.

The overall objective of the ESD process is to ensure compatibility between mining development and the environment. Where trade-offs can be avoided, they should be; where they cannot, decisions should be based on as complete an understanding as possible of the environmental, economic and social factors involved.

The theme of this report is the need to integrate environmental and social factors into decision making about economic development. Additionally the Working Group considered the following:

• achieving efficient mining development, appropriate community returns and improved land-use planning and decisionmaking processes;
• achieving better environmental protection and management;
• responding effectively to global environmental and economic challenges;
• improving and making better use of information through R&D and public involvement;
• improving performance in occupational health and safety; and
• achieving social equity goals.

The Working Group also considered ways for ensuring that environmental resources are appropriately valued, accepting that the best approach will usually involve a combination of market-based mechanisms and regulation.

Eighty-eight recommendations have been made by the Working Group most of which relate to proposed government actions. Some, however, are directed at individual firms and at industry associations, some at unions and environmental and other non-government organisations and some at the sector as a whole.

Key recommendations:

• further research on market-based options to facilitate decision making in the mining sector including security bonds for mine rehabilitation which provide incentives for improved environmental performance; tradable pollution rights for mines or processing plants; penalties and fines for poor environmental performance linked directly to level of emissions or environmental damage; ways of assigning monetary value to non-economic environmental resources, such as aesthetic values.

community returns:

• governments progressively replace pseudo royalties, such as excessive transport costs and the coal export levy, with more transparent, efficient and direct method.s for collecting community returns

improving land-use planning & decision making:

• the Australia and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council (ANZECC) immediately undertake to review and clarify existing land classifications tor the entire Australian land mass to improve the general level of knowledge ahout land and current land uses, and to help governments take decisions about future land uses as particular proposals for change come forward. This review should be under-taken in close consultation with other appropriate Ministerial Councils such as the Australian and New Zealand Minerals and Energy council, and be open for public scrutiny;
• governments ensure that land-use guidelines are available to indicate whether and under what circumstances, mineral exploration and mining activities would be acceptable for various land-use categories;
• ANZECC to develop a national framework to guide the future development of the conservation estate in Australia, including regional planning with biogeographic regions not being limited by State or Territory borders;
• the process for identification and protection of and availability of information on, sites of special significance to Aborigines be agreed between the States and Territories and the Commonwealth, in a manner that satisfies the interests of Aborigines and the mining industry;
• mining industry and Aboriginal interests to improve consultation processes.

better environmental management:

• governments articulate and publicise their objectives, policies and requirements for environmental management of exploration and mining activities;
• environmental management be treated as an integral component of the decision-making and regulatory process in relation to exploration and mining;
• companies be required to lodge security bonds or similar financial instruments to ensure that the cost of rehabilitation of mine sites can be met by the miner rather than through public funding.

The Working Group also makes recommendations on greenhouse, R&D, improving the contribution of mining communities and the workforce, community consultation and public information, and ways of adapting institutions to an ESD world.

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