- Open Pit gold and copper mines require a large number of facilities for excavation, ore processing, waste management, and site administration. Extracting metal bearing rock, separating valuable minerals, and managing the resulting waste (solids and liquids) require complex processes.
- The amount of unrefined ore body to be extracted, percentages of total mined deposits (i.e., primary sulphide ore (chalcopyrite) and secondary oxide ore), and degree of on-site processing to obtain more processed minerals (i.e., Au, Cu, Ag, etc.) are critical input parameters. Significant energy is required to do this processing. Large open pit mines can require up to several hundred MW of electricity.
- Mine Tailings have to be physically safely and environmentally sensitively handled and stored for the duration of the mine operations. Effluent waste streams may require to be treated as these solid wastes drain and are exposed to ongoing meteoric rainfall. Dewatering fluids may also require treatment depending on their mineralisation, but they would have significant value for geothermal energy extraction if hot enough.
