Biography
Biography: Jorge Loredo
Abstract
It is universally accepted by companies and administrations that the development of the extractive industry must be made in equilibria with the protection and conservation of the environment. Currently, a compromise between the exploitation of the mineral resources and the environmental protection is possible and this compromise must be reached in the framework of the applicable existing normative, taking into account the particularities of the mining activities themselves. In this context, the compromise between the exploitation of the mineral resources and the environmental protection must be contemplated by the inclusion of the environmental aspects into the all phases of the project, from the initial prospective phase to the closure phase at the end of the life of the mine, applying designs and preventive measures or in other case corrective impact measures, and incorporating to the project the environmental recuperation of the lands at the end of the project life. In this industry, the most important affections to the environment are associated to the mining wastes, then, the current philosophy in this matter is based in the principles of prevention, hierarchy, responsibility and application of the best available techniques, in order to diminish the wastes generation, to decrease the content in dangerous substances and to facilitate the recycling and valorisation of the generated wastes, by the transition to a more circular economy, where the products, the materials and the resources maintain long time in the productive cycle and the wastes generation will be reduced in origen.