The mining and mineral resources disciplines involve a number of activities ranging from developing or reviewing mineral exploration programs for potential financial investors through developing mining plans to environmental permitting. When disagreements arise in such projects they are usually because some aspect of the project has failed. This may be a result of an ambiguous agreement between two parties, agreed to originally for the sake of project expediency. Now, each claim is based on their interpretation of the original agreement. Often, an investigation conducted to underwrite the project is later found to be allegedly flawed and a partner wishes to withdraw from the project, without financial malice or obligation. Litigation is often the result.

Other discipline activities also lead to litigation. These may range from economic analysis of the ore reserves, the projected cash-flow, or environmental permits of a proposed or existing mining project to mine dewatering, water-supply development or protection, and mine environmental impact statements (and environmental geology) for state and federal regulatory approval. Litigation could also result in international projects and within groups of multi-national corporations.

Causes for litigation often focus on the highly subjective or potentially ambiguous aspects of the projects, such as ore-reserve assessments, cash-flow realizations, and cost estimates to meet environmental regulations. Disagreements in methods, interpretation of drilling data, chemical analyses, and geophysical surveys often result in litigation. Any of the above activities, analyses, evaluations, or assessments may have been conducted in a biased manner, by inadequate methods, or by personnel without appropriate training and experience and the associated professional geological certifications and/or state licenses.

Mineral exploration and environmental investigations have many common characteristics. Both require a familiarity with the geologic literature and both involve drilling, sampling, and analyzing for anomalous compounds present at or near the surface of the earth. Mineral exploration involves the search and evaluation of concentrations of economic metals and other elements found in naturally-occurring deposits at or near the surface of the earth. Mining involves the removal of earth materials and ore-grade materials to generate economic benefit. Value is created by mining a mineral or commodity for use by society in making a product of value to society. Successful mining projects consist of multi-disciplinary activites, such as in heap-leach, precious metal projects for example, and require a careful blend and balance of geological, chemical, geotechnical, engineering, financial, environmental and managerial expertise.

In the process of making a product, waste and by-products are produced which have historically been improperly handled and disposed of at locations that often threaten the health and well being of humans and the environment. Environmental investigations involve the search and evaluation of concentrations of anthropogenic waste or by-products such as metals, hydrocarbons, solvents, pesticides, herbicides, and other industrial coumpounds found in and around industrial centers in concentrations considered, in many cases, to be potentially dangerous to human health and the environment, i.e., to other fauna, flora and other natural resources.

In general, mining and mineral resources are directly linked to the environmental field. The former is the first stage of supplying society with its building blocks while the latter is the last stage of cleaning up after society's needs have been met. As society learns to mine its raw materials needed from the earth in more environmentally-sound ways, so too will society learn to produce the products it needs in more environmentally-friendly ways by reducing waste and improving handling techniques.

In the meantime, litigation will continue to thrive on projects where expectations are not based on reality but on an interpretation of apparent reality. The highly subjective and speculative nature of many investigations which support mining-project development are part of the risk of the undertaking, but prudent, independent investigations conducted by appropriately trained, experienced personnel holding the appropriate professional geological certifications and state licenses are required to minimize potential loss, not to eliminate it. The distinction between the two forms the basis for much litigation.

For further information on the discipline, the Institute of Environmental Technology sponsors an Internet Resources Portal, click (here). For additional information on this discipline and associated technical support, see AEG-TX.ORG and AIPG-TX.ORG.

The ELA Principal responsible for the above activities is:

Michael D. Campbell, P.G., P.H.

Note: The environmental field is multi-disciplinary by nature and, for maximum effectiveness, ELA incorporates input from complimentary disciplines when appropriate in most projects undertaken.

Last Update: December 15, 2002