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Harvesting ore alters the land - requiring extensive work to recreate wildlife
habitat by promoting the return of native plant species. It also alters
the landscape. Borax meets monthly with communities surrounding its mining
operations in Argentina, and quarterly with similar communities in the
United States to ensure clear, two-way communications about our current
and future operations.
Mining, refining and shipping borates also requires natural resources
- including water, electricity and fuel - to run each of our operations,
and each generates waste. Borax set its third sustainable development
objective to maximize efficient utilization of resources while minimizing
environmental impacts of our operations.
Mining operations change over time, making it difficult to achieve
absolute reductions in emissions and natural resource use year after
year. For example, as we mine deeper, it takes more fuel to haul the
ore over longer distances - which creates more air emissions, and requires
more water to control dust on haul roads.
Unplanned events also affect our environmental performance. In the
late 1990s, the north face of Borax's principal mine failed due to heavy
rainfall, faults and mine wall structure. This pit wall failure resulted
in 32 million tons of overburden - the rocks and soil covering the ore
- sliding down to bury the exposed ore. We ramped up mining activities
to uncover the face. This increased activity appears as an increase in
water use and air emissions from 1999 through 2000 in the following data.
To counteract the related increases in fuel and water consumption, Borax
invested in a fleet of larger, more efficient haul trucks. These trucks
carry more tons per trip than our previous fleet, lowering the amount
of fuel needed to move overburden and ore.
Beyond efforts to raise our environmental standards, we are also raising
our reporting standards. Right now, we set targets for specific processes
which you will find in the Efficiency section below. In 2004, we will
set global reduction targets and include comparative data to give people
better context for our environmental performance.
Accountability
Water Use
Air Emissions
Land Rehabilitation
Waste & Recycling
Regulatory Compliance
Efficiency
Energy Use
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Case Studies
Boric Acid Plant Expansion
U.S. project to increase boric acid capacity to meet rising global demand,
and increase efficiency
Petite Synthe Borogypsum Tailings Site
France project to apply sustainable development principles to site closure
project
Trout in Waters Naturally High in Boron
South American field research to provide data for product stewardship
program
To Learn More
To review Borax's Environmental, Health and Safety Policy, click here
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