**6.2 Case studies**



#### **Location**: Brazil


#### **Benefits/business value**:

and community damage. Conflict around competing resource needs is inevitable unless synergies and compromise are integrated. This points to consideration of shared values, an approach that has already realized rail and port improvement

**Academia**:

Environment

Columbia University - The Earth Institute, L'Université Gamal Abdel Nasser de Conakry-

Centre d'Etude et de Recherche en Environnement (UGANC-CERE)

**Guinean government ministries**: Ministry of Mines and Geology, Ministry of

With collaboration, Guinea's hydropower potential may be used to leapfrog GHG impacts while also benefiting underserved rural communities. Guinea is the source of at least a dozen major West African rivers and a similar number of regional rivers, and could potentially generate 19,300-26,000 GWh of hydropower annually [35, 40]. The present installed capacity, subject to considerable seasonal fluctuation, is 0.5–0.6 GW [41]. Still, rural electrification is less than half the national average (11 vs. 26%). System build-out in which the bauxite industry can serve as an anchor client coupled with careful planning and monitoring to ensure biodiversity and waterway health could provide enormous national and regional

On June 29, 2018, the results from both phases of this study were presented in a workshop chaired by the Chamber of Mines with extensive participation from mining companies and organizations (**Table 4**). Stakeholders applauded UNDP-Guinea and Columbia University and described the workshop to Mr. Ousmane Bocoum (UNDP-Guinea, June 29, 2018) as "solutions served on a plate". Debate on best practices inspired mining companies to discuss remediation strategies they are already practicing, making public efforts already underway (because they privately held, mining companies in Guinea have neither shareholder reporting nor robust corporate social responsibility reports). The workshop culminated in discussions on the benefits that mining companies would gain by more extensive knowledge sharing among compa-

**6.1 From shared use to shared solutions: a successful workshop**

nies, and how that knowledge sharing would help reach sustainability goals.

**Standards/regulatory drivers**:

• IFC 6: Biodiversity, IFC 4: Community, IFC 1: Assessment and Management of Environmental and Social Risks and Impacts

**Objective**: Enhance biodiversity by landscaping closed areas with native plants **Solution**: Nucleation method at bauxite mine in Brazil's Amazon region

*Case study no. 1*: Land Rehabilitation for Bauxite Mining

• Integrate solutions for closing tapped-out areas, enhancing biodiversity, and develop

co-funded by mining companies.

**Mining companies and trade organizations**: Chambre des Mines de Guinée, Alliance Minière

Commodities (AMC), Alufer Mining, Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée (CBG), Emirates Global Aluminum (EGA), Société Minière de Boké (SMB)

*English translations of organizational names are provided in Appendix A.*

Responsable (AMR), Alliance Mining

*Regional Development in Africa*

**Nongovernmental organizations**: Green Climate Fund, UNDP-Guinea, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

**Table 4.**

*Workshop participants.*

benefit in perpetuity.

**6.2 Case studies**

**Methods/technical approach**:

local economy

**58**


#### *Case study no. 2*: Community Engagement for Bauxite Mining **Objective**: Improve transparency and stakeholder dialog to reduce social unrest **Solution**: Dialog and support for local communities around bauxite mine, Brazil

#### **Methods/technical approach**:

#### **Standards/regulatory drivers**:


#### **Location**: Brazil


#### **Benefits/business value**:


*Case study no. 3*: Water Management for Alumina Refining **Objective**: Optimize water usage and wastewater treatment **Solution**: Water treatment and systems at alumina and aluminum refineries

#### **Methods/technical approach**:


#### • IFC 3: Resource Efficiency, IFC 1: Assessment and Management of

**Standards/regulatory drivers**:

Environmental and Social Risks and Impacts • ICMM 6, (10, reporting), Water

**Location**: Brazil

• Reduce operating costs by recovering additional water, caustic soda, and alumina • Use dry stacking to reduce environmental risk from extreme weather, flooding, or leakage • Smaller storage areas reduce need for new dams, footprint expansion, and logistical effort

• Reforestation efforts can be used or monetized for carbon offsets

*Case study no. 5*: Cost-Effective Clean Energy for Aluminum Smelting **Objective**: Long-term fixed price clean energy supply for smelting **Solution**: Purchase Agreement (PPA) for hydroelectric power

*Sustainably Growing Guinea's Bauxite-Aluminum Industry*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86471*

**Benefits/business value**:

**Methods/technical approach**:

hydroelectric plant

company

**Benefits/business value**:

operations

**61**

• Preliminary financial agreement between company as anchor customer and governmental agencies permits project

development and financing • Shared investment and concessions: publicly funded energy infrastructure in exchange for company-funded smelter, job creation guarantee, financial support for national park to offset lands lost to

• Multi-year energy supply contract guarantees offtake to amortize public investment and 40-year commitment for reduced energy pricing for smelting

• Three small communities within an area

with population of 88,000 • Subject to flooding, deforestation • Low employment, high poverty

**Standards/regulatory drivers**:

• ICMM 6, (10, reporting)

• Area population of 5000 • High environmental sensitivity • Highly educated community

**Location**: Iceland

• Use of long-term pricing agreement will produce 30% energy cost savings over other smelting

• Guaranteed uninterrupted power supply to smelter, accounting for 1/3 of hydroplant's output

• Co-financing through banks and lenders looking to expand their green finance portfolio • National parklands constructed under agreement create carbon sequestration, environmental

• Three-year window between signing of agreement and start of operations

benefit, community recreation, and national good will

• IFC 3: Resource Efficiency, IFC 1: Assessment and Management of

Environmental and Social Risks and Impacts

• ASI Principle 5 greenhouse gas emissions


#### **Locations**: Brazil and Qatar


#### **Benefits/business value**:


*Case study no. 4*: Red Mud Management for Alumina Refining **Objective**: Improve options for red mud storage and sequestration **Solution**: Dry stacking method for storing bauxite-alumina refining residue

#### **Methods/technical approach**:

#### **Standards/regulatory drivers**:


• Low employment, high poverty

#### **Benefits/business value**:

**Benefits/business value**:

*Regional Development in Africa*

dwellings)

**Methods/technical approach**:

waterways

process

for waste

**Benefits/business value**:

**Methods/technical approach**:

5 years deposition

**60**

• Use on-site wastewater treatment to eliminate fuel use from waste

• Reduce freshwater drawdown

transportation, and reuse treated water on site to reduce discharge into local

• Improve recovery process to capture and reuse of caustic soda for beneficiation

• Create and use a water risk management tool that covers use and discharge • Limit accidental discharge by reinforcing mine tailing lagoons and using topography

• Corporate Sustainability Report supports listing on *Dow Jones Sustainability Index*

• Improved local economic conditions reduces dependency on future mining support

facilitates production continuity during and after extreme events

**Solution**: Water treatment and systems at alumina and aluminum refineries

• Improve control over input sourcing reduces need for freshwater

• Reduce cost for caustic soda (ca. 15% of total cash costs in refining process • Proactive water risk management contains ecosystem threats during extreme events • Proactive water risk management and on-site treatment minimize infrastructure disruption

• Reduce cost for water resources and treatment

• Water husbandry co-benefits local communities

*Case study no. 4*: Red Mud Management for Alumina Refining **Objective**: Improve options for red mud storage and sequestration **Solution**: Dry stacking method for storing bauxite-alumina refining residue

• New filter press technique reduces moisture content in red mud to 22% (standard moisture content for drum filter is 36%) • Caustic soda, alumina, water recovery/reuse • Denser red mud residue requires significantly smaller areas for storage and sequestration • Storage dams are drained from the bottom for further caustic soda and alumina recovery • Storage dams may be reforested after

*Case study no. 3*: Water Management for Alumina Refining **Objective**: Optimize water usage and wastewater treatment

• Better informed local communities see company as reliable partner and resource for information • Third-party verification allows limited incidents of less popular actions (remove illegal

• Investment in community infrastructure and climate change (i.e., weather related) resilience

**Standards/regulatory drivers**:

Commitments 1–3

• Qatar: water-poor region • Qatar: energy-rich location • Brazil: susceptible to flooding • Brazil: sensitive local hydrology

**Standards/regulatory drivers**:

• ICMM 6, (10, reporting)

Impacts)

• IFC 3: Resource Efficiency, IFC 1: Assessment and Management of Environmental and Social Risks and

• ASI Principle 6 emissions, effluents, waste

**Locations**: Brazil and Qatar

• IFC 3: Resource Efficiency, IFC 1: Assessment and Management of

• ICMM 6, (10, reporting), Water

• ASI Principle 7 water stewardship

Environmental and Social Risks and Impacts


*Case study no. 5*: Cost-Effective Clean Energy for Aluminum Smelting **Objective**: Long-term fixed price clean energy supply for smelting **Solution**: Purchase Agreement (PPA) for hydroelectric power

#### **Methods/technical approach**:


#### **Standards/regulatory drivers**:


#### **Location**: Iceland


#### **Benefits/business value**:

