Evaluation of Cleaner Production for Gold Mines Employing a Hybrid Multi-Criteria Decision Making Approach

An Integrated Gray DEMATEL and ANP Method for Evaluating the Green Mining Performance of Underground Gold Mines

Green mining (GM) can achieve the harmonious development of mineral resource exploitation and environmental protection. Performance evaluation is the key to promoting GM. This research explores favorable methods to evaluate the green mining performance (GMP) of underground gold mines. First, according to the specific characteristics of underground gold mines, an evaluation criteria system for GM is formulated. Meanwhile, the weights are calculated using an integrated gray DEMATEL and ANP technique, which considers the correlation between indicators. Subsequently, the solution methodology for performance evaluation is proposed based on normalization of indicators. Finally, six underground gold mines are utilized as case studies to verify the methodological feasibility. The results of the empirical study show that there is a significant gap between ordinary mines and pilot green mines, and this study, via comparison analysis and cause–effect analysis, gives direction for mines improvement. Not only will the work provide technical and theoretical support for the evaluation and construction of similar green mines, it will also serve as a reference for government policy implementation.

A Novel Hybrid Interval Rough SWARA–Interval Rough ARAS Model for Evaluation Strategies of Cleaner Production

Cleaner production is certainly a challenge of our everyday life, and a lot of effort and energy is required to achieve it. This paper has created a model of five strategies for cleaner production in Libyan industry, which have been evaluated on the basis of eight criteria. In order to determine the significance of the criteria, a novel interval rough SWARA (step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis) method has been developed, which takes into account the preferences of decision-makers (DMs) by applying interval rough numbers. A novel interval rough ARAS (additive ratio assessment) method has been developed for the evaluation and selection of the most favorable strategy for cleaner production. The integration of the developed methods has yielded results showing that the first strategy, launching awareness-raising campaigns to publicize these policies, represents the most realistic and best current solution to achieve cleaner production in Libyan industry. A comparative analysis with some existing interval rough methodologies has been presented to verify the superiority of the proposed model. In addition, in a sensitivity analysis, the weight of the most significant criterion has been changed.

What Hinders the Promotion of the Green Mining Mode in China? A Game-Theoretical Analysis of Local Government and Metal Mining Companies

China is currently trying to reduce the environmental impact of metal mining operations by promoting green mining. However, conflicts of interest between the central government, local governments, and metal mining companies often negatively affect the implementation of related policies. This paper conducted a theoretical analysis of the game mechanism between local governments and metal mining companies to study the factors that influence their strategies. First, we summarize the various game model parameters, determine the strategies which the companies and local government can choose, and establish the game model for the companies and the local government. Second, we list the utility of the company and local government under all game outcomes and analyse their behavioral tendencies. Third, we discuss the impacts of various factors on the choice of their mining mode in detail. The behavioral analysis shows that the local government’s inclination to supervise a mine is negatively related to the supervision cost and positively related to the production scale of this mine; various factors influence the companies in their decision making, with the yield and comprehensive utilization rate of tailings and waste rocks have the greatest impact; the scale of mine production also affects the companies’ willingness to carry out technological innovation. Finally, we offer some suggestions for the promotion of green mining.

Linguistic neutrosophic power Muirhead mean operators for safety evaluation of mines

Safety is the fundamental guarantee for the sustainable development of mining enterprises. As the safety evaluation of mines is a complex system engineering project, consistent and inconsistent, even hesitant evaluation information may be contained simultaneously. Linguistic neutrosophic numbers (LNNs), as the extensions of linguistic terms, are effective means to entirely and qualitatively convey such evaluation information with three independent linguistic membership functions. The aim of our work is to investigate several mean operators so that the safety evaluation issues of mines are addressed under linguistic neutrosophic environment. During the safety evaluation process of mines, many influence factors should be considered, and some of them may interact with each other. To this end, the Muirhead mean (MM) operators are adopted as they are powerful tools to deal with such situation. On the other hand, to diminish the impacts of irrational data provided by evaluators, the power average (PA) operators are under consideration. Thus, with the combination of MM and PA, the power MM operators and weighted power MM operators are proposed to aggregate linguistic neutrosophic information. Meanwhile, some key points and special cases are studied. The advantages of these operators are that not only the interrelations among any number of inputs can be reflected, but also the effects of unreasonable information can be reduced. Thereafter, a new linguistic neutrosophic ranking technique based on these operators is developed to evaluate the mine safety. Moreover, in-depth discussions are made to show the robust and flexible abilities of our method. Results manifest that the proposed method is successful in dealing with mine safety evaluation issues within linguistic neutrosophic circumstances.

Cleaner Production and LCA as Complementary Tools in Environmental Assessment: Discussing Tradeoffs Assessment in a Case of Study within the Wood Sector in Brazil

Cleaner production has been used for several years in Latin America to minimize waste generation while reducing material and energy consumption. Despite those environmental benefits, its implementation may sometimes lead to changes in products or processes whose environmental performance can yield either positive or negative outputs when examined within a broader context, meaning it is necessary to complement cleaner production with other environmental tools that can provide environmental assessments. This paper presents a combination of cleaner production with life cycle assessment (LCA) applied within the wood industry in a case study in Salvador, a state of Bahia (Brazil), regarding the production of two models of wooden chairs. The study selected life cycle assessment as a scientific tool to quantify the environmental impacts of the models having ILCD 2011 midpoint and cumulative energy demand methods. The results confirmed the presence of environmental tradeoffs among the models that were not considered during the cleaner production program implemented. This paper also includes a proposal of a flowchart to guide the implementation of cleaner production when deciding to implement changes in material, energy source, processes, final destination, or lifespan of the product evaluated, identifying the stages where environmental assessment like life cycle assessment may be required to address tradeoffs.

Assessing the Performance of Green Mines via a Hesitant Fuzzy ORESTE–QUALIFLEX Method

Due to various environmental issues caused by resource exploitation, establishing green mines is an essential measure to realize sustainable growth for mining companies. This research aimed to develop a novel methodology to evaluate the performance of green mines within hesitant fuzzy conditions. First, hesitant fuzzy sets (HFSs) were used to express original fuzzy assessment values. Then, the extended expert grading approach and the modified maximum deviation method with HFNs were combined to determine comprehensive importance degrees of criteria. Afterward, the traditional qualitative flexible (QUALIFLEX) method was integrated with the Organísation, rangement et synthèse de données relationnelles (ORESTE) model to achieve the rankings of mines. Finally, the proposed hesitant fuzzy ORESTE–QUALIFLEX approach was utilized to evaluate the performance of green mines. In addition, the robustness of the method was verified by a sensitivity analysis, while the effectiveness and strengths were certified by a comparison analysis. The results indicate that the proposed methodology has great robustness and advantages and that it is feasible and effective for the performance evaluation of green mines under hesitant fuzzy environment.