Approach to identifying sustainable development attributes effective in open pit mine design

Mining design is a key part of the mining life cycle and the integration of sustainable development (SD) considerations makes the project a profitable activity with the least adverse social and environmental impacts. Applying sustainability considerations in the very late stages of project development and focusing on impact mitigation and control measures has been one of the most important reasons for not integrating the principles of SD in the feasibility and design stages of projects. In this study, the attributes of the three principles of SD discussed in various studies were collected and a logical approach was adopted to identify the social and environmental attributes effective in the design, optimization, and selection of the ultimate pit limit (UPL). Then, political-security problems, creation of employment, pollution of underground/surface waters, acidic depositions, materials existed in the tailings dam, soil physical specifications, the recycle/removal of waste, restore habitat post-mining, tailing dams and waste dumps and respect of sensitive areas was selected for quantification and integration in the sustainable design of the Songun copper mine as a case study.