Synergies and challenges of bottom-up and top-down approaches for assessing social impacts in mining operation

The mining industry plays a critical role in the global economy by providing raw materials and metals for various sectors, but it is also associated with environmental and social impacts. This paper presents a comparison of the findings from social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) with those obtained from a stakeholders’ risk perception analysis. The goal is to provide a multifaceted view on the challenges faced by the mining industry in achieving sustainable practices. This research reports the results of S-LCA and stakeholders’ risk perception analysis used to evaluate the social dimension of sustainability in two different European Horizon 2020 projects: (i) recovery of secondary metals and minerals from mining residues through bioleaching and chemical precipitation (project NEMO with a demonstration site in Finland), and (ii) recycling of wastewater and valorization of tailings from mining activities to create geopolymers through chemical activation (project ITERAMS with a demonstration site in Portugal). The S-LCA conducted in NEMO reveals that fair salary is the social category presenting the highest risk (22