Last year, gold mines produced nearly 1 t of carbon dioxide (CO2) for every ounce of gold produced, says business intelligence company Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Market Intelligence research.
To gather insight into greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions in the gold mining industry, the firm reviewed sustainability reports from more than 90 gold mines across the world to compare their CO2 emissions to a variety of production values.
The firm notes that South Africa’s gold mines are excluded from this study as the country is an outlier with anomalously high GHG emissions, owing to its coal-heavy power grid, above- average needs for ventilation due to its deepening mines and falling ore grades.
The research finds that openpit mines emitted, on average, more than twice as much CO2 equivalent per ounce of gold produced as underground mines.