Life Cycle Assessment as a Tool in Sustainable Mining for Identifying Key Impact Stages

Abstract

This study examines the application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as a decision-support tool for sustainable mining, with a focus on identifying key environmental impact stages across the mining life cycle. A structured, screening-level LCA approach is developed to support early-stage evaluation, incorporating the main phases of mining operations, including resource extraction, material handling, and processing. The proposed approach considers key factors influencing environmental performance and provides a systematic basis for identifying environmental hotspots by determining the stages that contribute most significantly to selected impact categories. It also distinguishes between its application to new mining projects, where data availability is limited and uncertainty is higher, and existing operations, where more detailed information may be available for analysis. The results indicate that even at a preliminary level, this approach can effectively highlight stages with significant environmental contributions, supporting the prioritization of processes for further investigation. The findings suggest that integrating such a structured LCA framework into early project development can improve the consistency of environmental evaluations and support more informed decision-making, while also providing a basis for subsequent, site-specific assessments.