Environmental cost of Mined Diamonds is alarming

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ENVIRONMENTAL COST OF MINED DIAMONDS

IS ALARMING

Image Courtesy: Edward Burtynsky – ‘Nickel Tailings #24’, Olivia Jensen, China Water Risk

Copyright © 2014 Better Diamond Initiative. All rights reserved www.betterdiamondinitiative.org 2

Considering the environmental impact of top 11 responsible diamond mines (due to lack of sufficient data and info of other diamond mines, available in public domain), on an average,

3.10 Tons of earth displacement

0.056 CO2e Tons of GHG emissions

8.9 Liters of fuel consumption

0.34 GJ of energy usage

2,534.78 Liters of water usage

1 carat of

mined diamond causes

Environmental cost of Mined Diamonds is alarming


Applying these averages to 2012 global rough diamond production of 128 Million Carats (though the real impact may actually be much more

severe), following is the environmental impact caused by mined diamonds every year

396.84 Million Tons

of

Earth Displacement

19.84% of Mount Fuji1

At this rate, in little over 5 years a mountain as big as Mount Fuji can be brought down to surface

1 Derived using the mass of Mount Fiji calculated at http://w-uh.com/articles/030917b-really_moving_Mou.html



7.1513 CO2e

Million Tons

of

Emissions

1.5+ million vehicles running for a year2

2 Derived using Energy calculator at http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-resources/calculator.html



1,139.23 Million Liters

of

Fuel Consumption

8,500+ New York – London return flights3

3 Derived considering Boeing 747’s fuel consumption of 12 liters/ Km



43.68 Million GJ

of

Energy Usage

1+ million US household’s annual electricity consumption4

4 Derived considering 2012 EIA average of electricity consumption of 11,319 kWh per household



324,451 Million Liters

of

Water Usage

5+ months of water consumption by

Kenya’s entire 41.8 million population5

5 Derived considering 2006 average water usage in Kenya of 46 liters/ person/ day available at http://www.data360.org/dsg.aspx?Data_Set_Group_Id=757 and Kenya’s 2013 population of 41.8 million




1 Note: Actual data reported have been converted to bring it to a standard UOM and make it comparable) 2 Earth displacement includes Soil, materials, waste, rocks etc. 3 Total Fuel includes Petrol, Diesel, Gas, Others 4 Water usage of Petra Diamond mines are 2012 figures

Environmental impact of top 11 responsible Diamond mines



Apart from Anglo American Plc in the RobecoSAM Gold Class and Rio Tinto in the RobecoSAM Bronze class (both into diversified mining), the Mining sector list of the 2014 Dow Jones Sustainability Indices is composed of non-diamond mining companies

Hardly any diamond mining companies

Ø  report on Global Reporting Initiative (GRI);

Ø  implement International Council on Mining & Metals (ICMM) Sustainable

Development principles and framework, AA1000 Assurance Standard;

Ø  enrol to Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP);

Ø  appear on CDP S&P 500 (Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index);

Ø  conform to Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)



Mined Diamond’s (Un)amazing Tidbits

Mirny Mine in Russia in its more than 4 decades of operations was dug 525 meters deep and 1,200 meters wide. This second largest excavated hole in the world created downward air flow that caused some incidents of helicopters being sucked in and was later declared as a No-flying zone!! In Russian Federation, CO2 is not included in the list of harmful (containment) substances subject to registration and emission rating by a 2010 order of Ministry of Natural resources and Environment!! (So much for the Environment!!) In 27 years till 2002 an estimated 4 million in Angola and between 1991 and 2002 around 2 million people in Sierra Leone were displaced, all largely discredited to Diamond mining and its repercussions!!



Considering the alarming impact on environment, unless no radical changes are made to the existing diamond mining practices, it will become utterly difficult to save our planet!!

Read the full article on http://betterdiamondinitiative.org/environmental-cost-of-mined-diamonds-is-alarming/

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Environmental cost of Mined Diamonds is alarming

Environment

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