El medio ambiente en la minería

185 Would aIl metal producers have the same limits for emissions and other environmental regulations, only those who otherwise have lowest production costs could survive. Everyone knows that consistent international restrictions will not be possible in the very near future. So, in the world market a company whose emissions are 2-20 kg S02 per tonne of metal gets the same price as another company whose emissions are 2,000-3,000 kg S02 per tonne. This is one reasan why there is such great discussion about the imbalance in environ– mentallegislation. What to do with certain "poisonous" metaIs like As, Hg, Cd and Pb in the future? They already are, at least partIy, banned in sorne countries. Environ– mental restrictions cannot remove these elements from the earth crost. They will aJways be impurities in the ores and must be separated in the production of "pure, useful" metals. Future trends to reduce wastes and promote recycling will increase intema– tional trade ofsecondary rawmateriaIs. This trendwill favour those companies whose processes already today can use e.g. metallurgical wastes containing harmful impurities. However, existing and forthcoming regulations that limit transboundary movements of wastes can create barriers for the use of wastes as raw material in processes where they can be processed safely and economi– caUy. Environmental trends can, in the future, very effectively affect intemational trade. There is a good example from the Finnish pulp and paper industry. Chlorinehas been traditionally used as a bleaching agent. Today it is a "banned" chemical. Sorne paper mills have been forced to change from chlorine to oxygen bleaching as they could no Jonger seU their products in sorne countries. This aIso had effects on the metallurgical industry. Worldwide the reduced . production of chlorine has resulted in the lack of sodium hydroxide which is a by-product of chlorine production. The price of sodium hydroxide has rapidly gone up and has resulted in remarkable production costs in sorne processes. If the proposed requirement to use 50% recycled paper in paper production will come in force, Finland can not fulfill that. Simply because we produce paper many limes more than we consume. We are a large exporter of paper and paper products. Even if every piece of paper could be collected and recycled in Fintand, we would still need to import a main part of the waste paper in order to satisfy the proposed requirement. CONCLUSIONS Jt can be seen that the mining industry will face more and more stringent regulations in industrialized countries, and that the introduction of global standards is unlikely in the near future. This imbalance will have sorne conse-