Impact Assessment of Atmospheric Pollutants Emissions from Mining Operations at Ghana Managanese Company Ltd.

Abstract

Atmospheric pollutants diffusion study was conducted around the operational sites and immediate neighbouring communities of Ghana Manganese Company (GMC). The pollutants are emitted by sources associated with the main operations and activities of the mine including on-bench rock drilling and blasting, material excavation and hauling, vehicular movements and mine machinery exhaust emissions, as well as crushing of blasted rocks. Methodologies involving computerised dispersion modelling was used to estimate near-field ambient pollutant impacts on neighbouring Tarkwa-Banso community, at 400 m from the Mine’s nearest operational site (Pit C North). The community is located in the dispersive fan of North to the East-South-Eastern part of the mine site. Measured airborne particulates (PM10 and TSP) concentrations in the Tarkwa-Banso community were below Ghana EPA’s permissible limits of 70 µg/m3 and 150 µg/m3 respectively. The predicted monthly concentrations of the airborne particulates (PM10 and TSP) at 400 m buffer from the crushing plant were greatly lower than the permissible regulatory limits. With effective dust mitigation measures, the predicted PM10 and TSP dust concentrations emanating from drilling, blasting, loading and hauling activities at Pit C North were also generally lower than the regulatory requirement. All the predicted monthly concentrations of NOx and SO2 at the 400 m buffer from Pit C North were significantly lower than the allowable regulatory requirement of 60 µg/m3 and 100 µg/m3 respectively. The study indicates that, the operation of the crushing plant together with the general mining operations at Pit C North in the mine has no significant impact on Tarkwa-Banso community.  Keywords: Impacts, Particulates Matter, Concentration Levels, Environment, Prediction