The Environment
ENK recognises that mining projects have the potential to cause adverse biological and physical impacts and seeks to ensure negative impacts are mitigated and positive impacts enhanced.
ENK is committed to protecting the environment through every phase of the project lifecycle. The “HSEC Approval Process” allows ENK to identify and assess potential environmental sensitivities and opportunities at each stage of development.
Through this process and through its first project in Turkey, ENK is developing best practice procedures for all environmental aspects. This has led to the development of an Environmental Management System (EMS) with the intention to achieve accreditation to the international standard ISO14001: 2004 at the full-scale plant at Çaldag.
All ENK employees, contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and institutional stakeholders have a role to play in protecting the environment and senior management are fully committed to the process and its goals.
Environmental Benefits of the Tank Leach Process
ENK believes that the tank leach process it has developed provides significant environmental benefits over conventional nickel laterite processing technology. Operation of the tank leach in close proximity to the mine minimizes the transport distances for the unrefined ore, thereby reducing truck movements and associated emissions to air, land and water as well as the potential impact on the health of both the workforce and to members of the community. The tank leach process also considerably reduces the carbon dioxide emissions generated per tonne of nickel produced when compared to pyro-metallurgical nickel processes. The future conversion of sulphur to sulphuric acid at an onsite acid plant also producesenergy which can be used to create steam and in turn generate electricity generating all the sites electrical needs. Any excess power generated can be sold to the local electrical grid which will reduce the requirement for the grid to be supplied with electricity generated by burning fossil fuels.
The company continues to investigate ways to reduce our carbon footprint such as the use of environmentally safe low-impact marine disposal of saline water from the process. This in turn reduces the use of precipitation agents which will produce a higher risk waste stream that requires on land disposal. This process will also reduce associated carbon dioxide releases in process and the need for use of limestone and quarrying operations.
Goals
Beyond this, ENK is committed to protecting the environment and its resources at every stage of the mine lifecycle through exploration, construction, operation and closure. Recognising that mining projects have the potential to cause adverse biological and physical impacts, the Company seeks to ensure negative impacts are mitigated and positive impacts enhanced. The “HSEC Approval Process” allows ENK to identify and assess potential environmental sensitivities and opportunities at each stage of development.
Environmental responsibility includes managing emissions to air, land, and water, successful closure planning, ongoing restoration and returning the land to its original use and the company has developed discrete standards in relation to each of these areas.
All ENK employees, contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and institutional stakeholders have a role to play in environmental protection. ENK’s core commitments in this area are:
- Evaluating the environmental aspects of mining operations and proposing appropriate management and monitoring procedures to eliminate, reduce or mitigate adverse impacts
- Establishing environmental objectives which are realistic and achievable
- Encouraging supply chain partners to adopt the appropriate levels of environmental management to support ENK’s key objectives
- Establishing environmental management procedures that are auditable by an independent party
- Sourcing environmentally-sustainable materials, reducing the consumption of energy and raw materials and maximising the opportunities to re-use and recycle where feasible
- Maintaining active, ongoing monitoring programmes to evaluate operational risks to health and safety and the environment
- Avoiding the manufacture, trade, and use of chemicals and hazardous materials subject to international bans or phase-outs due to their high toxicity to living organisms, environmental persistence, potential for bioaccumulation, or potential for depletion of the ozone layer
