Sustainable Development in Mining - Economics, Society and Environment

Dirk van Zyl, PhD, PE

UBC Professor of Mine Life Cycle Systems

Dirk has more than 30 years experience in research, teaching and consulting in tailings and mined earth structures. During that period, he was a faculty member for 13 years at four universities in the U.S. and in Canada. For the last 10 years, much of his attention has been focused on mining and sustainable development. He has been involved internationally in many mining projects, covering the whole mining life cycle, from exploration to closure and post-closure, in a large range of climatic and geographic environments. His present research is in the area of the contributions that mining makes to sustainable development, as well as the application of life cycle assessment to mined earth structures.

Dirk has an M.Sc and a Ph.D in Geotechnical Engineering from Purdue University in Indiana, and an MBA from the University of Colorado. He is using this set of lectures to explore the sustainable development issues in coal mining from the vantage point of extended experience in the hard rock arena. While the detailed coal mining practices may be different, the overall conceptual framework is similar: the importance of engagement, environmental and social well-being, governance, economics, etc. Dirk is looking forward to encouraging broad discussion, and challenging people’s thinking in the arena of sustainable development.