Land use change and related carbon emissions from metal mines in Canada: An industry-level review

During mining, native vegetation, dead organic matter, and soil are stripped from the landscape to accommodate mine infrastructure. Carbon emissions increase in response to rapid land-use change (LUC) because the carbon storage (i.e., in living and dead biomass) capacity of the site is reduced or lost for the life of mine. New and expanding mines need to account for these carbon impacts during net zero planning for their operations. This analysis reviewed LUCs for 85 metal mine sites in Canada in 2001 ± 1 and 2019 ± 1. LUC was estimated using satellite imagery and publicly available operations information. Greenhouse gas emissions were determined based on a Government of Canada accounting method. A total of 27,000 hectares of land were disturbed. The associated 12.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emitted during the study period represented approximately 15% of Scope 1 emissions from hydrocarbon-based fuel consumption at these operations. The impact on the carbon sink estimated for select sites was up to 20% of the carbon emissions from LUCs.