Environmental performance assessment for small mining operations

This work is the result of a demand for environmental performance information for sand extraction by dredging. It aims to combine the development of a system of environmental indicators with a management practice that is more in line with modern times. Its general objective is to present a set of environmental performance assessment indicators for sand mining by dredging, drawing up guidelines that should be answered and/or observed, making up an environmental report or report on the situation. The writing presents a set of indicators in eight (8) areas: environmental policy; environmental management system; risk management system; legal compliance; product management; financial performance; environmental development and accounting criteria, which are presented in the form of items. The set of indicators applied reports on the environmental situation of companies. In the end, it establishes a hierarchy of environmental behaviour in four (4) classes (reactive, beginning to be implemented, being implemented and proactive), with the two mines studied being in the first class (reactive).