Sustainability of Russian Platinum - Coursework Example

Sustainability of Russian Platinum Sustainability of Russian Platinum Executive Summary Platinum metal groups are one of the mineral resources that possess unique range of physical and chemical properties. This has seen its demand increase due to its application in broad technologies that are environmentally friendly like electronics and fuel cells. Mineralization of the ore grade of platinum though similar to gold, its processing is highly similar to that of base metals (Mudd & Glaister, 2009). This implies a platinum exploration project has to involve an excavation, smelter, flotation concentrator, and processing plant. The costs associated with environment degradation of platinum exploration investment are usually higher compared to other major minerals like gold. This has raised concerns over the long-term feasibility of relying on platinum supply to meet technological needs in future due to the social and environmental impact it causes like unfair relocations, compensation issues, air pollution and water pollution (Shields & Solar, 2005). The high environmental cost faced in exploring platinum mineral in Russia has become a major concern on the sustainability of the investment. This is because higher environmental cost in future will diminish the attractiveness of the investment. Accordingly, this paper explores on the Russian platinum industry that is second major supplier of platinum globally and its associated environmental costs like greenhouse release, energy and water. In undertaking the review of the platinum industry of Russia and its associated environmental cost, the project examines on better ways of extracting the minerals that will reduce environmental impacts. This will help in ensuring the platinum resource exploration remains sustainable in future. Key Words; environmental costs, sustainability, bioleaching Overview Platinum exploration is a major economic activity in Russia due to the foreign currency it generates. Russia has over the years been the second largest supplier of platinum in the global market after South Africa (Piskulov, 2012). In 2011, the world supply of platinum component amounted to 3.48 million that consist of 47.3%. This reflects that the platinum supply from Russia is essential in sustaining the growing global demand. The demand of platinum in the global market is due to its application in military, commercial and industrial new technology needs. This implies that platinum exploration under the current market demand has the potential of enhancing revenue for Russia and firms involved in explorations. However, the production of Russian platinum of recent has been declining due to declining level of ore grades of the current deposits and state stock depletion (Shields & Solar, 2005). Even though the current mineral deposit ore grades are declining, significant quantity of platinum has been identified in different to replace the current reducing deposits. The exploration of the new deposits is facing challenges due to the potential environmental degradation it is likely to cause in already occupied areas (Cohen, 2007). This has the threat of hindering platinum supply sustainability in the global market. The open mines approach that is applied extracting platinum has been found to be a major contributing factor to carbon dioxide emissions, polluting aquifers, causing energy wastage and forcing relocations in areas excavated. These attributes adversely impact heavily on the social and environmental condition of the country in supporting the investment. The pollution and human and wildlife transfer that is caused by platinum exploration in Russia forces the organizations undertaking the projects to incur huge costs to compensate for human and wildlife relocations and undertaking projects to lessen water and air pollution. This is due to the growing activism and commitment in the global market for organizations to be environmentally and socially cautious for their products to be acceptable in the international market (Mudd & Glaister, 2009). Thus, the cost associated with undertaking new platinum mineral exploration is estimated to be extremely high. This has the potential of causing the feasibility of investing in the industry to be unfavorable for the Russian economy (Piskulov, 2012). The high financial obligation organization face in extracting the rich Russian platinum mineral increases the operation cost that reduce the potential profit levels. In addition, the global activism and commitment to observe environmentally and socially friendly practices has the potential of hindering firms willing to exploit the Russian platinum from undertaking the lucrative investment. Consequently, there is a growing need to devise an advanced approach that has the potential of lessening the environmental cost associated with undertaking platinum exploration in Russia (Michael Hitt & Duane, 2009). This will make the Russian platinum exploration sustainable in future since the high cost and market entry threat will be eliminated significantly. The ability to reduce environmental degradation and minimize interference with families and wildlife close to the potential platinum deposits will enable exploration firms to reduce operational cost. Findings, Solutions and Justification Mining of mineral resources in the modern world involves prospecting of land with potential ore bodies, feasibility analysis, material extraction and land reclamation once the mine is completely depleted. The recent worldwide adopted regulations require abandoned mines to be cleaned up through best practices. This has been occasioned by the need eradicate the chronic health crisis and arsenic pollution that had affected areas extracted minerals and poor land reclamation carried out (Shin, 2013). Safety concern has become one of the major aspects of the mining industry in ensuring mineral recovery is undertaken safely (Fillmore C, 2010). This has seen organizations involved in excavation of mineral resources incurring huge capital in observing safe mineral recovery. Russian platinum is one of the precious resources facing environmental safety costs due to the preventive measures required for an organization to undertake in ensuring the resource recovery process is safe. The sustainability of the Russian platinum industry is at blink of collapsing due to the heavy costs firms involved in the resource extraction face in ensuring the process is safe. However, there a number of cheaper and environmentally friendly platinum resource extraction measures that can be adopted in Russia to make the industry sustainable in the global economy. The new technologies that have been advanced in the mining industry are capable of allowing the extraction process of mineral resources to be safe. Bioleaching is one of the environmentally friendly modern mineral resource extraction techniques that the Russian platinum industry can adopt. This involves employing living organisms in extracting mineral resources from ores. Thus, a bacteria naturally occurring is used in the process of extracting the mineral resources free of chemicals (Rawlings & Johnson, 2009). Accordingly, arsenic and toxins of mine debris are neutralized. This extraction process of platinum resource is advantageous since the requirement to limit emission of sulfur dioxide during smelting process is not experienced (Mohee & Mudhoo, 2012). The expenses incurred in limiting the emission of sulfur dioxide under the traditional extraction process will be saved as profit. In addition, bioleaching has the advantage of reducing the landscape that is damaged during the extraction process significantly since the natural bacteria employed breed naturally (Russell, 2012). Thus, the adjacent and mine area is left intact relatively compared to using the traditional open mine approach. This will save the platinum extraction expenses of allocating families and wildlife in the adjacent of the mining sites that is expensive. In addition, the expenditure of acquiring new bacteria will be reduced considerably since the breeding bacteria are cultivated and reused (Ishra & Champagne, 2009). The profitability of the Russian platinum industry will improve due to the cost saving the new approach derives in preserving the environment. Similarly, bioleaching extraction process of the platinum will allow the mining organizations to extract the resources from poor ore grades compared to the current traditional method been applied. This is because the bioleaching method is effective in extensive grinding and crushing poor ore grades instead of using traditional methods that consume high energy and cost (Auernik & Kelly, 2010). Thus, the approach will ensure the high energy consumption and wastages that harm the environment is solved significantly. Furthermore, the mining organizations will ensure the mining organizations exploit much of the platinum ore grades in extracting the resources. This is essential in ensuring the business of extracting platinum resources in Russia remains sustainable due to reduction of wastages (Mohee & Mudhoo, 2012). Another aspect that promotes bioleaching to be a better environmentally extraction method of Russian platinum is its economic benefit. The simplicity of applying bioleaching method makes it cheaper to maintain and operate compared to traditional extraction approaches. This is because the need of specialists to manage complicated chemical plants is relatively minimized (McKinney, Schoch, & Yonavjak, 2012). The cost of serving specialists and consultants in preserving environment requirement is one of the major costs platinum mining firms face. Consequently, the new environmentally extraction approach will reduce the human resource expenses that will boost the profitability of the organizations. Accordingly, bioleaching extraction of the platinum resource is an effective alternative that should be adopted by mining companies to remain sustainable in the industry. This is because the approach allows organizations to minimize the cost of preserving the environment they operate under to be able to transact in the global market. Reflective Analysis and Conclusion Platinum industry is a significant sector in supporting the economy of Russia due to the export revenue it earns. The exploration of Russian platinum mineral started back in 1823 around Ural Mountain to the current days. Russia has been among the largest supplier of platinum mineral resources in the global economy. The demand for platinum resource has been contributed by its wide application in industrial, military and commercial technology due to its environmentally friendly by-products. Consequently, the high collection of Russian platinum in the global economy is essential in driving the domestic and global economic growth. However, the sustainability of platinum production in Russia is facing a major threat. This is due to the environmental concerns that have been raised globally on the extraction process of the mineral resource (Saha, 2010). The pollution and social impact extraction of mineral resources causes in the environment has caused the mining industry to face global sanctions that ensures mining organizations observe safe mineral extraction mechanisms to preserve the environment. Thus, trading platinum in the global market is faced with hindrances of ensuring the source of the resource is not endangering the environment (Weiss, 2009). This has seen the cost associated with eradication of pollution and social impacts skyrocketing to unmanageable level. The cost mining face in extracting the platinum resources in Russia has significantly increased due to cost incurred in preserving the environment. Consequently, the sustainability of the platinum exploration in Russia is under threat due to high cost of the business. However, there is a better extraction method that is environmentally friendly that has the potential of reducing the environmentally associated costs significantly. The bioleaching extraction is an environmentally friendly method of mineral resource that should be adopted by platinum resource mining firms in Russia (Mohee & Mudhoo, 2012). Bioleaching method utilizes bacteria that breed naturally to neutralize the toxic remains of the mine site. Thus, the sulfur-dioxide emission from the platinum mine sites are limited significantly. This is a cheap method of ensuring the extraction of platinum deposits is environmentally conscious. The cost involved in using the bioleaching approach is significantly lower compared to the traditional methods. Thus, organizations involved in extracting platinum resources in Russia will save much cost by employing bioleaching method. This will ensure the business of mining platinum in Russia is sustainable under the current global mining practices (Shin, 2013). The organizations will be able to preserve the environment using the bioleaching approach that is of low cost. Profitability of operating the business will be maintained since much of the current costs the organizations are incurring will be eradicated or minimized significantly. Consequently, a rational platinum extracting investor in Russia should adopt bioleaching extraction mechanism to ensure the business survives in the current global practices at a lower cost. Reference Auernik, K. S., & Kelly, R. M. (2010). 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