ENVIRONMENT

BUSINESS: 295 PRACTICES


TOPIC:

Initiative

Environmental footprint reduction

Environmental footprint reduction
SUBMITTED FROM:

Hellas Gold

The mining company HELLAS GOLD SA was established in December 2003 with aiming to: Operate mines of all kinds, processing and marketing of minerals, establish and operate metalworking operations for vertical integration of production in Halkidiki.


www.hellas-gold.com 


Contact

Objective Action

Resource management's goal is the reduction of Hellas Gold Environemtal fingerprint as well as saving resources.

 

Target Audience

  • State/ Public Administration
  • Suppliers and Partners
  • Business Associations
  • Non-Governmental Organizations
  • Academic community

 

 

Duration

Ongoing- Continuous(2014-2016).


Description

Aiming strict environmental monitoring throughout the production process, Hellas Gold through its environment department improves the effectiveness in this area through continuous measurements of all environmental aspects of the project (which are publicly available http://www.hellas-gold.com/environmental/periballon-parakolouthisi/), while investing in technologies that significantly reduce the environmental impact of the mining process in the region of northeastern Chalkidiki.

Moreover, the company has achieved to convert litter and waste into products of the mining process and through recycling and/ or reuse giving to Hellas Gold economic benefits but also supporting the local communities (e.g. free provision aggregates used in road construction) and improve environmental parameters (e.g. water discharged in Stratoni is absolutely pure and hippocampus are living almost next to the port of Hellas Gold https://www.youtube.com/watch company;v = 0TtP74nHd7c). Seahorses in order to survive need to be kept in very clean water.

Hellas Gold environmental management system, applies to all the company's activities from research to rehabilitation. This system, received the ratification of the council of state in April 2013, and is certified under Environmental Management System ISO 14001.

The implementation of ISO 14001 for environmental management essentially certifies the environmental policy of the company. The certification included a complete study of our activity in the Cassandra Mines in NE Halkidiki from geological research to identify new deposits and the preparatory work for the construction of new mining facilities. Moreover, the system covers the exploitation of mineral deposits, to the mineral processing, handling materials (ore, products, solid residues) but physical and rehabilitation projects.

Top management is participating in the environmental management process actively, demonstrating the greatest environmental sensitivity by providing all the necessary resources for optimization and thus environmental compliance. The Department of Environment proposals for effective Environmental Management are always accepted by senior management and funded. It is worth noting that the top management never made any expenditure cut for environmental causes. The main categories of these investments is environmental monitoring, restoration and the continuous improvement of production processes.


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Impact on Society

  • Appreciable reduction of old tailings, zero wastewater discharge to the environment.
  • Solid inert mineral residues from the mine Olympias development projects, Tunnel Madem Lakkos - Olympias mine slag and development projects of the Black Stone, after being processed in crushing plants, can be used as a building material, which in many cases offered for free to the local community.
  • The remaining solid mineral residues are used after treatment as backfill material for the needs of the mines or shipped in specially licensed disposal sites within our facilities.
  • Also, in the thorough inspection and evaluation process we include quantitative and qualitative controls of solid mineral waste, and as mentioned above these are used as by-products and therefore have specific requirements.
  • Regarding the environmental monitoring, indicatively, the amount spent for the  equipment, which was invested in the period 2014-2016, exceeded three million euros. Also, from 2014 to date we have invested EUR 1.5 million for the restoration of old tailings of the Olympics, which is expected to be completed in two years by then depth costing a total of EUR 5 million.


Initiative Location

All the plants, the company worksites and installations in Greece.


Working with Organization

Hellas Gold also cooperates with Universities through which research projects proposed further improvements at all levels of approaching the world's best practices.

Indicative partnerships in this regard have been made with the following Universities:

  • Department of Forestry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki for environmental restoration
  • Department of Geology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki for hydrological studies
  • Department of Mining Engineering NTUA for environmental characterization of

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Workers Participation

Τhe company systematically cultivates a culture of environmental awareness and promotes voluntary actions on the environment and the recycling.


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