LMI AMIR

The Sustainable Environment team of CEREGE is strongly involved in activities in Morocco, thanks to the dynamism and tools of the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD). Among the actions developed around natural resources and renewable energies by the IRD, the team has initiated a collaboration with the young team associated with the IRD (JEAI) PHYTOMET in the framework of an internal AAP of the CEREGE (APIC 2019) which was concretized by the birth of an international mixed laboratory (LMI) in 2020: Responsible Mining Activities in Morocco: Issues, Challenges, Solutions

Context

The continued strong growth in global demand for minerals has doubled since the 1990s, partly linked to technological and infrastructure development. The concomitant rise in commodity prices is encouraging an intensive increase in mining activities, particularly in the Mediterranean countries and those of the tropical belt. However, these exploitation dynamics are part of global economic processes, and the extraction of primary mineral resources entails numerous ecological, economic and social risks. The risks include local impacts (ecosystems, biodiversity, aquifers, Dutch disease economy, loss of cultural identity and social cohesion, population health, inequalities) and global impacts (greenhouse gases - GHGs). They are also part of the fundamental issues that question the environmental and social sustainability of growth, the reduction of inequalities and poverty, and the reconfiguration of citizenship.

Mining companies are now required to participate directly in the well-being of societies because of the social responsibility they are now recognised to have, but also because of new injunctions to prevent and reduce the negative impacts of their activities (SDGs, 2015).

Issues

The diversity and variability of issues and challenges faced by mining projects throughout their implementation make it necessary to consider mining activities over their entire life cycle.

The solutions to these challenges depend on the geological context (nature of the deposits and the exploitation and treatment processes) but also on the environmental, economic, political and cultural contexts.

However, contributing to the overall objective of accompanying mining activity in a perspective of increasing responsibility, improving the governance of projects, reducing their negative impacts, restoring degraded environments, but also questioning development models, informing populations and promoting dialogue between stakeholders, requires a stronger and more interdisciplinary involvement of science: LMI AMIR's holistic approach helps to produce the necessary knowledge, promotes its dissemination to the greatest number of people and thus contributes to the dialogue between stakeholders while proposing concrete solutions that can be chosen and accepted by the majority of stakeholders.

Research objectives

Helping to achieve the overall objective of supporting mining activity with a view to increasing responsibility, questioning development models, reducing negative impacts, restoring degraded environments and promoting information and dialogue. The LMI also aims to involve science to a greater and more interdisciplinary extent: LMI AMIR's holistic approach helps to produce the necessary knowledge, and to propose concrete solutions that are accepted by the majority of stakeholders.