Mining Sustainability Practices in Latin America
223
biodegradable dust suppressor product. This resin is produced by chemical recycling
of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) waste and has a sealing feature, keeping material moisture in stockpiles, rail cars, and unpaved roads. This initiative contributes
to the reduction of particulate solid emissions, providing improvement of air quality
in the surrounding communities. In addition to the environmental benefits that this
innovation will provide to operations, there is the social gain through the involvement of local waste picker associations in promoting the recycling of plastic waste,
generating sustainability for the business.
The general most of the projects under development we find those related to tailing
management, waste/emission management, and recycling and resource recovery.
6 Conclusion
The main objective of this study was to identify and examine the current dominant
practices in the mining industry in Latin America, the results of this study show that
mining companies carry out various practices that range from corporate philanthropic
sustainability to sustainable entrepreneurship, highlighting the activities found in
corporate sustainability management, while addressing different issues considering
the environment, health, safety, social or integrated that cover their activities along
the supply chain, where the concentrations of sustainable practices are related to
the link of the productive process. Similarly, it highlights that most practices are
social; this can be understood by the events of recent years as strikes, rejection of
communities, tailings overflows, among others.
However, there are still points that companies have to address and focus their
efforts on developing sustainable practices related to suppliers and final products,
the latter being critical in the sense of handling, recycling, and reuse.
The contribution of this study is to collect and identify the current situation of the
implementation of Corporate Sustainability Activities in the main mining companies
in Latin America.
This application can guide corporate sustainability managers on their journey to
the next sustainability frontier, providing a notion of what points to strengthen and
what points to address. The continuous examination of how the mining industry
advances in this trip will be essential to advance the findings of this study and follow
the development over time.
As a suggestion for future studies, we recommend expanding the sample and
comparing these practices with mining industries in other countries, to deepen the
results and allow a deeper analysis to find factors that explain in depth the behavior
of companies about the type of CSA. Replicate this study considering sustainability
reports from different periods, to analyze whether companies are making improvements over previous periods and thus analyze the effectiveness of these practices
since although companies have mapped the activities to carry out, the incidents and
unfortunate events continue to happen.
223
biodegradable dust suppressor product. This resin is produced by chemical recycling
of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) waste and has a sealing feature, keeping material moisture in stockpiles, rail cars, and unpaved roads. This initiative contributes
to the reduction of particulate solid emissions, providing improvement of air quality
in the surrounding communities. In addition to the environmental benefits that this
innovation will provide to operations, there is the social gain through the involvement of local waste picker associations in promoting the recycling of plastic waste,
generating sustainability for the business.
The general most of the projects under development we find those related to tailing
management, waste/emission management, and recycling and resource recovery.
6 Conclusion
The main objective of this study was to identify and examine the current dominant
practices in the mining industry in Latin America, the results of this study show that
mining companies carry out various practices that range from corporate philanthropic
sustainability to sustainable entrepreneurship, highlighting the activities found in
corporate sustainability management, while addressing different issues considering
the environment, health, safety, social or integrated that cover their activities along
the supply chain, where the concentrations of sustainable practices are related to
the link of the productive process. Similarly, it highlights that most practices are
social; this can be understood by the events of recent years as strikes, rejection of
communities, tailings overflows, among others.
However, there are still points that companies have to address and focus their
efforts on developing sustainable practices related to suppliers and final products,
the latter being critical in the sense of handling, recycling, and reuse.
The contribution of this study is to collect and identify the current situation of the
implementation of Corporate Sustainability Activities in the main mining companies
in Latin America.
This application can guide corporate sustainability managers on their journey to
the next sustainability frontier, providing a notion of what points to strengthen and
what points to address. The continuous examination of how the mining industry
advances in this trip will be essential to advance the findings of this study and follow
the development over time.
As a suggestion for future studies, we recommend expanding the sample and
comparing these practices with mining industries in other countries, to deepen the
results and allow a deeper analysis to find factors that explain in depth the behavior
of companies about the type of CSA. Replicate this study considering sustainability
reports from different periods, to analyze whether companies are making improvements over previous periods and thus analyze the effectiveness of these practices
since although companies have mapped the activities to carry out, the incidents and
unfortunate events continue to happen.