El medio ambiente en la minería

EL MEDIO AMBIENTE EN LA MINERIA 184 Recently, Outokumpu and Kennecott Corporation, United States ofAmerica, have signeda licénce agreement on flash convertinifmetliQd to be applied at Kennecott's new'copper smelter inUtah. The agreemerifalso included a flash smelting1icence and basicengineeringservices. ThiSsfueJter ofnewgeneration mayset theworld standard for environmental control aiid operational efficien– cy. V. FINLAND AND ITS NEIGHBOURS Most of the aeíd rain in Finland is of foreign origino Therefore, even major investments in order to further reduce S02emissions in Finlandwill only have restricted local effects. Finland as weIl as our westemneighbours, Sweden and Norway, have been concemed about the great S02 emissions oC North-East Eucope, mainlyof the former SovietUníon and Poland. S02emissions oC these eastem neíghbours. oC Finland are more than 5 million tonnes per annum compared with the Finnish emissions oC 240,000 tonnes. One special case is the pollution caused by the Kola nickel industry in northern Scandinavia. Emissions of the Kola area are about 570,000 tonnes S02 and several tbouSand tonnes oC metals. These S02 emissions are higher tban the emissions oC Finland, Sweden and Norway together. After several years, the Soviet govemment permitted Outokumpu to make an offer to renovate the Petshenganikel smelter from electric smelter to flash smelter. The renovation would cosí USD 600million and reduce S02emissions abaut 95%. Finaneing has been the big problem in the project. Political and economical changes in Russia have further delayed the project. A Scandinavian consor– tium led by the Finnish &port Credit Uníon has prepared a funding plan, but has failed to find aRussian partner. Outokumpu is stiUwaiting for newRussian initiatives. VI. INTERNATIONAL TRADE .. Inmany countries, the mining industrywill face stricter reguIations conceming wastewaters, waste disposal and reclamation. This set pressure onmetal prices may cease mining in some countries, and without intemational commitments, concentrate mining in countries with lower environmental requirements. In metallurgy there will be good market for energy saving and non-pol1uting processes like flash smelting - flash converting technology for sulphurie con– centrales. "