Minerals Engineering 24 (2011) 14301439

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Minerals Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mineng

Transport in the minerals industry Contributions to greenhouse gas emissions and potential for mitigation
Y. Li a, G.D. Corder b,, B.C. McLellan c
a

Western Australian School of Mines, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Curtin University, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia 6433, Australia The University of Queensland, Sustainable Minerals Institute, Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining, St. Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia c Graduate School of Energy Science, Kyoto University, Yoshida-Honmachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
b

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
The extraction of primary ores and the end user of the contained minerals are typically separated by large distances. Under current paradigms, the transportation of minerals is powered by fossil fuels, which produce signicant greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Off-site greenhouse gas emissions from transportation of mineral products are not currently considered to be within the scope of inuence of the mineral industry except in those cases where the company owns and operates the transport eet. The signicance of these emissions has therefore not been regularly accounted for. This paper presents the results of a study conducted by the authors of the emissions from transportation of Australian minerals (as one of the worlds key minerals producers). The results indicated that an estimated 4.4Mt of CO2-equivalent was produced domestically by transportation in 2008. This is equivalent to 6% of other emissions from the Australian minerals industry (McLellan, 2009). Estimates of the emissions from export shipping of Australian bulk minerals indicated that an additional 96.4Mt of CO2-equivalent is produced from this source, which is 20% greater than the entire on-site and off-site electricity generation emissions from the Australian minerals industry. Possible mitigation options were examined, with fuel substitution for biodiesel, natural gas or hydrogen showing the highest potential in the medium to long term. 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 17 November 2010 Accepted 2 July 2011 Available online 3 August 2011 Keywords: Environmental Mining Mineral processing Transport Greenhouse gas

1. Introduction Australia is a nation with abundant natural resources and a large scale minerals industry by world standards. As part of mining, extracting and producing minerals and metals, the industry generates signicant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, estimated to be up to 14% of total Australian emissions (McLellan, 2009). Emissions from on-site activities in the minerals industry (Scope 1) and emissions from off-site electricity production (Scope 2) are currently accounted for in assessments of GHG emissions. However, the off-site emissions from transportation of the mineral products are currently unaccounted for by the majority of companies. Given Australias size and its remote location from most of the rest of the world, it is likely the GHG emissions from transportation of the products of mining would not be insignicant. Therefore, it is important to understand the magnitude and relative importance of these Scope 3 emissions compared with the much better measured Scope 1 (on-site) and Scope 2 (off-site electricity) emissions. Having such estimates of the Scope 3 emissions provides an indication of the contribution that transportation makes to GHG emissions along the minerals and metals value chain. In addition,
Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 (0)401 994 948; fax: +61 (0)7 3346 4045.
E-mail address: g.corder@smi.uq.edu.au (G.D. Corder). 0892-6875/$ - see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.mineng.2011.07.001

these estimates of emissions from transportation allow for a range of potential, and in some cases feasible, mitigation strategies to be explored. 2. Key transported mineral products Australia produces a wide range of minerals for domestic and export markets. A total of 352 signicant mines were operating in the 20082009 period, for which much of the basic information (e.g. location, commodity) was available (Geoscience Australia, 2009a). Mineral products can range from highly processed pure metal through to minimally-processed concentrate or ore. The less processing that occurs at or very near the mine site, the higher the volume of product that is transported; thus the focus of this analysis was on only coal, iron ore, bauxite and base metal concentrates as these products are the highest volume mining/mineral products transported excluding construction materials such as gravel, sand and cement. Other minerals such as precious metals, mineral sands, diamonds, gemstones, opals, and gypsum are excluded, as they are insignicant in terms of the overall tonnage transported, due to their lower total mined volumes and higher levels of on-site processing. Emissions from transportation of rened products (such as copper cathode and aluminium) are also excluded due to their relatively lower tonnages rates.

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Nomenclature CO2-eq FFC GHG carbon dioxide equivalent (all reference to CO2 in this paper will be to CO2-eq) full fuel cycle (the life cycle of fuel from production through to use) greenhouse gases ntk DB5 net tonne kilometres (tonnes transported multiplied by kilometres transported) diesel blended with 5 per cent of biodiesel.

Of the 352 mines whose data were available, 206 operating mines were selected for inclusion on the basis of the above assumptions. Most of the remaining mines were gold mines, which largely ship low volume metal product. More relevant data including production tonnage, mode and distance of transport were collected from company annual reports, ofcial websites and other sources. Some distances between mines and processing plants or ports were estimated using Google Earth to ll gaps in the data. 3. Mineral transportation statistics and emissions The transportation of minerals consists of two basic legs domestic and international. In the Australian context, domestic transport is largely rail and ship based, while international transport is exclusively by ship due to geographical constraints. For this study, domestic transportation was dened as product (e.g. concentrate) from the mine gate to market or the next stage of processing and international travel was from the nearest Australian port to the port of the country of destination. It did not include transportation within a mine site, such as mine trucks transporting ore for an open cut pit. A summary of the key data related to tonnage and transportation for each commodity is presented in Table 1. 3.1. Domestic transport The major domestic transport modes for minerals concentrates and ore are rail, road, ship, conveyors and slurry pipelines. The tonnage and distance transported are mine-specic, and these data were gathered from annual reports and online websites in most cases. The product of tonnage and distance was used to determine the most dominant transport modes and is measured in net tonne kilometres (ntk). Rail is the dominant method of transportation for coal, iron ore, bauxite and base metal concentrates. Due to the clustering of mines, signicant infrastructure exists for railing large tonnages of product to port. Approximately 35% of coal is transported on electric rail in Queensland and New South Wales (estimated based on (Queensland Rail, 2009)), the remainder being transported by diesel powered rail. Iron ore production is predominantly in Western Australia and is dominated by BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto who operate their own rail transport. These ancillary rail operations tend to be signicantly more efcient than externally operated hire and reward (H&R) rail (Appelbaum Consulting Group, 2008). Australia is the worlds largest producer of bauxite, with 31% of global production in 2008 (Geoscience Australia, 2009b). There are ve bauxite mines in Australia; three located in Western Australia, one in Northern Territory, and the other in Queensland. The operation in Weipa utilises ship to transport bauxite to Gladstone for rening and smelting, whereas the remainder use conveyors and rail due to their much closer proximity to reneries. Fig. 1 indicates that rail accounts for 78.3% of tonne-kilometres, followed by ship and conveyor, representing 20.6% and 0.8% respectively. Shipping of bauxite from Weipa to Gladstone, while

only moderate in terms of tonnage, represents the longest transport distance (2100 km). Road transport and slurry pump transport are almost insignicant, as the tonnages are small or distances short. Fig. 1 also shows the tonne-kilometres broken down by the different commodities. Although the total tonnage of coal transported is the highest, transportation of iron ore accounts for more than half of the tonne-kilometres because each tonne of iron ore is transported approximately twice the distance of the average tonne of coal. Base metal concentrates are almost insignicant due to signicantly lower tonnage.

3.2. International transport International transport of Australian minerals is entirely dominated by shipping. The key markets for Australian minerals are shown in Fig. 2. Estimates of shipping transport tonne-kilometres were made by calculating the shipping route distance from major representative Australian ports to typical international ports in the destination countries. For the purposes of this study it was assumed iron ore was shipped from Dampier, and coal shipped from Gladstone in Queensland or Newcastle in New South Wales to Shanghai, Mumbai or Nagoya. Even though some of these commodities are shipped from different ports (for instance, a signicant portion of Queensland coal is shipped from ports near Mackay), the overall distances based on these assumptions were sufciently accurate for the aims of this study. The total shipped tonne-kilometres for the selected minerals are 4.6 1012 ntk and the breakdown by country can be seen in Fig. 3.

4. Carbon emissions Carbon emission from transport were estimated using emissions coefcients based on average emissions per tonne-kilometre for a given transport mode. These emissions coefcients, presented in Table 2, were sourced primarily from the Australian Government Department of Climate Change with additional coefcients sourced from a study by the Appelbaum Consulting Group which was commissioned by the Australian Transport Energy Data and Analysis Centre. (Appelbaum Consulting Group, 2008; DCC, 2008). In the case of trains and trucks, which are likely to be empty on one leg of a return journey to port from a mine, GHG emissions on the unloaded leg are considered to be equivalent to 50% of the value for a fully loaded train (based on a comparison of emissions per gross tonne-kilometre with per net tonne kilometre (Queensland Rail, 2002)). Emissions for the operation of conveyors were estimated from tonnage and distance with appropriate factors (Perry et al., 1997), while the pumping power for slurry pipelines was estimated from the installed pump power capacity. As it was not possible to determine the energy sources for all conveyors and pumps, they were estimated to run on electricity from the relevant national or state grid, with emissions factors from the Department

1432 Table 1 Summary of key data for each commodity. Total Coal Total tonnage (ktpa) Total distance of all routes (km) Total tonne-kilometres (million ntk pa) Number of operations/routes considered Average tonnage (ktpa) Average distance of route (km) Average real distance of travel (km) Total energy delivered (TJ pa) Total energy (FFC) (TJ pa) Total CO2 (ktpa) Iron ore Rail

Y. Li et al. / Minerals Engineering 24 (2011) 14301439

Conveyor 66,757 108 1007 10 6676 11 15 647 761 245 Pipeline

Road 18,608 162 329 11 1692 15 18 952 1084 91

Ship (domestic) 1910 18 34 1 1910 18 18 5.7 6.2 0.7

Total 357,598 14,928 55,030 100 3576 149 154 12,620 19,188 1667

Ship (international) 261,601 180,159 2540,660 16 16,350 11,260 9712 420,814 455,651 53,381

277,850 14,640 53,659 80 3473 183 193 11,015 17,336 1330

Total tonnage (ktpa) Total distance of all routes (km) Total tonne-kilometres (million ntk pa) Number of operations/routes considered Average tonnage (ktpa) Average distance of route (km) Average real distance of travel (km) Total energy delivered (TJ pa) Total energy (FFC) (TJ pa) Total CO2 (ktpa) Bauxite

314,424 4443 105,957 13 24,186 342 337 10,457 11,914 834

2500ss 83 208 1 2500 83 83 45 53 1.8 Conveyor

316,924 4526 106,164 14 22,637 323 335 10,502 11,967 836

323,524 57,001 2015,643 6 53,921 9500 6230 333,854 361,493 42,350

Total tonnage (ktpa) Total distance of all routes (km) Total tonne-kilometres (million ntk pa) Number of operations/routes considered Average tonnage (ktpa) Average distance of route (km) Average real distance of travel (km) Total energy delivered (TJ pa) Total energy (FFC) (TJ pa) Total CO2 (ktpa) Copper Total tonnage (ktpa) Total distance of all routes (km) Total tonne-kilometres (million ntk pa) Number of operations/routes considered Average tonnage (ktpa) Average distance of route (km) Average real distance of travel (km) Total energy delivered (TJ pa) Total energy (FFC) (TJ pa) Total CO2 (ktpa) LeadZinc

23,000 82 1877 1 23,000 82 82 462 527 37

32,169 88 718 3 10,723 29 22 491 578 146

20,006 2126 42,528 1 20,006 2126 2126 7044 7627 894

75,175 2296 45,122 5 15,035 459 600 7997 8732 1077

251 3218 170 5 50 644 679 42 48 3.3 Pipeline

188 1416 23 5 38 283 123 67 76 6.4

438 4634 193 10 44 463 441 109 124 9.8

1694 37,684 11,357 5 339 7537 6704 1881 2037 239

Total tonnage (ktpa) Total distance of all routes (km) Total tonne-kilometres (million ntk pa) Number of operations/routes considered Average tonnage (ktpa) Average distance of route (km) Average real distance of travel (km) Total energy delivered (TJ pa) Total energy (FFC) (TJ pa) Total CO2 (ktpa) Nickel Total tonnage (ktpa) Total distance of all routes (km) Total tonne-kilometres (million ntk pa) Number of operations/routes considered Average tonnage (ktpa) Average distance of route (km) Average real distance of travel (km) Total energy delivered (TJ pa) Total energy (FFC) (TJ pa) Total CO2 (ktpa)

473 1558 181 4 118 390 383 45 51 3.6

570 304 173 1 570 304 304 89 104 26

142 120 17 1 142 120 120 49 56 4.7

1185 1982 372 6 198 330 314 182 211 34.6

2482 106,071 21,381 8 310 13,259 8615 3541 3835 449

7 550 4 1 7 550 550 1.0 1.1 0.08

20 415 4 2 10 208 216 12 14 1.2

27 965 8 3 9 322 306 13 15 1.3

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Total Tonnes Transported - by material sector (nmtk)

Cu, Pb, Zn, Ni 573 0.3% Bauxite 45,122 21.8%

Total Tonnes Transported - by transport mode (nmtk)

Coal 55,030 26.6%

Ship 42,563 20.6%

Slurry Pipeline 381 0.2% Conveyor 1,725 0.8% Road 374 0.2%

Rail 162,055 78.3% Iron ore 106,372 51.4%

Fig. 1. Total domestic net million tonne-kilometres transported by material and mode.

of Climate Change (2008). In some cases, the electricity for the conveyors and pumps are generated through on-site power stations. A summary of the key data related to energy usage and emissions for each commodity are presented in Table 1. The work presented in this paper has focussed specically on quantifying the CO2-eq emissions of transportation based on the energy utilisation of the fuel source. The data presented in Table 1 will assist future workers who wish to expand on this analysis to include other components along the life cycle of the fuel sources. 4.1. Domestic transport emissions The overall analysis estimated that total GHG emissions from domestic transportation (that is, from the mine gate to the next stage of processing or market as dened earlier) is 4.4Mt CO2-eq based on data published from the various abovementioned sources in 2008. As the Australian minerals industry currently produces approximately 79.4Mt CO2 equivalent emissions (McLellan, 2009), this indicates that an additional 5% is generated from domestic transportation alone. The emissions from minerals transportation are broken down by transport mode and by material sector in Fig. 4. This shows that rail is the dominant emission source, responsible for 76% of the emissions. Shipping of bauxite from Weipa to Gladstone is also a major emissions producer, claiming 20% of the total. Emissions from road, conveyor and slurry pumping transport equate to around 4% of the total. Road transport emits a large amount of GHG per unit, but is not signicant overall due to the low tonnes-kilometres transported. As conveyor and slurry pump-related emissions are almost insignicant they are not included in Fig. 4. In terms of commodities, transportation of iron ore, coal and bauxite are the three major sources, which contribute 99% of total emissions. 4.2. International transport emissions The total emissions from international transport were estimated to be 96.4Mtpa CO2-eq, signicantly higher than that for domestic transport and more than 20% greater than the emissions from the entire minerals industry in Australia (McLellan, 2009). This is one signicant effect of Australias position as a large scale exporter of ore and concentrate, rather than rened metal or metal products. Fig. 5 shows that the emissions are mainly due to iron ore and coal transportation, and that the majority of Australian minerals transport is in delivery of minerals to Asia. With increasing tonnages as demand for Australian minerals and coal increases

plus increasing transport distances to port due to the growing remoteness of Australian mine sites, there will be a greater demand on energy for transportation (Mason et al., 2011). The continued use of oil derived fuels in the minerals industry has the potential to impact on peak oil within an Australian context. Diminishing availability of oil derived fuels could then conceivably impact on the competitiveness of the Australian minerals industry in the international market. 4.3. Previous Studies There has only been one report that was identied as containing estimates of transportation based emissions from the mining sector (AGO, 2002). The results from the current work (labelled 2009) are compared with this historical estimate (labelled 1999) in Tables 3 and 4. This shows that there has been an apparent increase in the intensity of emissions per net tonne kilometre of energy-minerals transportation, and a decrease in the non-energy sector. The increase in the energy sector may be due to the wider usage of higher-emitting electric rail transport, which over the full fuel cycle (FFC) has higher GHG emissions than diesel locomotives (Appelbaum Consulting Group, 2008). This is discussed further in Section 5.1.3. 5. Mitigation Strategies Domestically, rail transport is the highest emitting transport mode, while overall international shipping is the largest emitter, contributing greater than 96% of all minerals transport emissions. A number of mitigation strategies to offset emissions from these transport methods were examined and the results of this analysis are presented in this Section. Broadly, these can be categorised as: fuel switching for decarbonisation, efciency improvement, reducing the transport burden through on-site processing and carbon offsets. 5.1. Alternative fuel sources 5.1.1. Natural gas or biodiesel The current train and ship eets operate largely on diesel or fuel oil.1 Alternative fuels such as natural gas or biodiesel could reduce GHG emissions. Using natural gas instead of diesel has not been widely adopted to date in the freight transport industry, even when
1 Ships currently use heavy fuel oil, however this is assumed to be equivalent to diesel for the purpose of this study.

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Copper concentrate exports (kt)

Korea, Rep. of, 183, 11% Other, 81, 5% China, 567, 33%

Lead concentrate exports (kt)

Other, 52, 14%

China, 145, 38% Korea, Rep. of, 91, 24%

Japan, 339, 20%

India, 523, 31%

Japan, 49, 13%

European Union 27, 43, 11%

Zinc concentrate exports (kt)

Other, 184, 9% Spain, 146, 7% Belgium Luxembourg, 32, 1%

Brazil, 2.3, 1% Other, 43.4, 16%

Black coal exports (Mt)

China, 9.8, 4% Chinese Taipei, 23.0, 9% European Union, 18.4, 7%

Netherlands, 231, 11%

China, 945, 45%

Korea, Rep. of, 35.6, 14%

India, 24.3, 9%

Korea, Rep. of, 291, 14% Japan, 273, 13% Japan, 104.8, 40%

Iron ore and pellets exports (Mt)

Korea, Rep. of, 28, 9% Japan, 61, 19% Other, 0.2, 0%

European Union 27, 3, 1% China c, 223, 69% Chinese Taipei, 8, 2%

Fig. 2. Key export destinations for Australian minerals products (ABARE, 2009a) Copper = 1693kt; Lead = 380kt; zinc = 2102kt; iron ore = 347Mt; coal = 261.6Mt.

Other 574,147 13%

International destinations for Australian minerals (nmtk)

International transportation of Australian minerals (nmtk)

Cu, Zn, Pb 32,738 1%

Rep. of Korea 479,278 10%

China 1,405,705 31% Chinese Taipei 199,144 4% European Union 458,736 10%

Iron ore 2,015,643 44% Coal 2,540,660 55%

Japan 1,198,805 26% India 273,226 6%

Fig. 3. International transportation of Australian minerals by destination and commodity (net million tonne-kilometre).

Y. Li et al. / Minerals Engineering 24 (2011) 14301439 Table 2 Emissions factors utilised for the various modes of transportation. Road (truck) MJ/ntk (delivered) MJ/ntk (primary energy FFC) kg CO2-eq/ntk (combustion) 2.89 3.29 0.28 Rail (hire and reward) 0.25 0.28 0.020 Rail (ancillary) 0.079 0.090 0.0063 Rail (electric) 0.12 0.42 0.036

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Ship 0.17 0.18 0.021

GHG emissions (kt) by material sector - CO2 -eq

Cu, Pb, Zn, Ni 55 1%

GHG emissions (kt) by transport mode - CO2 -eq

Ship 894 20%

Bauxite 1,095 23%

Coal 2,378 50%

Road 156 4%

Iron ore 1,253 26%

Rail 3,312 76%

Fig. 4. GHG emissions (ktonnes) by material sector and transport mode.

Other 12,063 13%

International destinations for Australian minerals (kt CO 2 - eq )

International transportation of Australian minerals ( kt CO2- eq )

Cu, Zn, Pb 688 1%

Rep. of Korea 10,070 10%

China 29,535 31% Chinese Taipei 4,184 4% India 5,741 6% European Union 9,638 10%

Iron ore 42,350 44% Coal 53,381 55%

Japan 25,188 26%

Fig. 5. International transportation of Australian minerals by destination and commodity (kt CO2-eq).

Table 3 Transportation impacts from the mining sector - Historical comparison of subsectoral specic emissions estimates. Sub-sector Specic emissions (kg CO2-eq/t) 1999 Mining of energy for export (e.g. coal) Non-energy mining (e.g. iron ore) 4.2 12.2 2009 6.0 5.9

Table 4 Transportation impacts from the mining sector Historical comparison of subsectoral specic emissions estimates per net tonne kilometre. Sub-sector Specic emissions (kg CO2-eq/ntk) 1999 Mining of energy for export (e.g. coal) Non-energy mining (e.g. iron ore) 0.017 0.019 2009 0.039 0.015

no modications to engines are required. If, however, the entire diesel usage was converted to natural gas at the same efciency for energy conversion, the emissions would be reduced by approximately 20%. Biofuels have been on the market for a number of years. DB5 (diesel blended with 5 per cent of biodiesel) is one potential alternative fuel for use in standard diesel engines without modication. GHG emissions from using biofuel are likely to be lower than standard liquid fuels however, in some circumstances, they may lead to higher emissions or only a neutral benet (Fargione et al., 2008). Depending on the feedstock used (waste, sustainably cropped or virgin forest), the feedstock transport and the feedstock production practices, the addition of biofuel can typically reduce emissions by 1.54.2% for DB5 according to Cuevas-Cubria (2009). Biodiesel that produced the highest level of emissions reduction in that study was based on the collection and conversion of waste cooking oil. However, such a source will not provide large-scale biodiesel production.

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Y. Li et al. / Minerals Engineering 24 (2011) 14301439 Table 6 Percentage of Australian mining land required to produce sufcient biofuel for given rates of domestic transport biodiesel substitution. Bio-fuel oil source Land required for given percentage substitution (% of Australian mining land usage) 5% Corn Soybean Canola Coconut Oil palm Microalgae (70 wt.% oil) Microalgae (30 wt.% oil) 5.44 2.10 0.79 0.49 0.35 0.16 0.01 10% 10.9 4.20 1.57 0.99 0.70 0.31 0.01 20% 21.8 8.40 3.15 1.98 1.39 0.63 0.03 50% 54.4 21.0 7.87 4.95 3.48 1.57 0.07 100% 108.9 42.0 15.7 9.90 6.96 3.15 0.14

The current annual usage of fuel for transportation of minerals in Australia is estimated to total 787 PJ, which is approximately equal to 20.4 GL of diesel. On the assumption that the caloric value of a litre of biodiesel is approximately the same as for a litre of diesel, the amount of land required to produce sufcient oil feedstock is shown in Table 5 (using oil production gures from Chisti (2007)). Table 6 shows the percentage of land associated with mining in Australia (approximately 0.44% of Australias land mass) that would need to be utilised for biofuel production. The results in Table 6 illustrate the wide range of variability between different biofuels in terms of the amount of land required to produce sufcient fuel. Corn would be impractical while microalgae could provide a feasible source. In practice there would be challenges, such as the availability of sufcient water and appropriate soil and climate conditions close to appropriate refuelling sites. Engines operating only on biodiesel will most likely require modication over standard diesel. However, this is a nancial not technical barrier to widespread implementation. Worldwide food shortages may be a larger hindrance to this strategy. The conversion of food crops to biofuels or planting energy crops instead of food crops could be considered contentious and not necessarily a more sustainable option from the global perspective. 5.1.2. Hydrogen locomotives Hydrogen vehicles deliver the clear benet of zero tailpipe emissions, with only water produced after combustion or reaction. On the face of it, this seems to be an ideal solution to resolving the issue of GHG emissions, but there are signicant barriers to widespread implementation, and the full fuel cycle implications need to be taken into account. Hydrogen locomotives have been tested and examined in comparison with conventional diesel-electric and electric trains (Miller et al., 2007; Haseli et al., 2008). These studies indicate broadly that the efciency of diesel-electric locomotives is slightly higher than that of electric (catenary) locomotives, and very similar to hydrogen locomotives. The barrier to catenary-electric trains in remote areas is largely the cost of infrastructure. In addition, there would be considerable constraints related to hydrogen production and distribution in remote areas. The cost of fuel cells, while decreasing gradually, was recently about $4000/kW, approximately 100 times greater than the cost of internal combustion engines (Wald, 2004). Furthermore, if the energy source for producing hydrogen is not renewable, it is not likely to be a better option on a full fuel cycle basis (McLellan, 2009). Estimates of the potential full fuel cycle benets of hydrogen fuel cell locomotives using data from Miller et al. (2007) and McLellan (2009) indicate a reduction of approximately 30% of emissions from minerals transportation if the hydrogen is produced via natural gas steam reforming. If, however, the hydrogen

is produced via coal gasication, the substitution could lead to a 34% increase in emissions (if no carbon capture is applied).

5.1.3. Electried rail system The biggest benet of an electried rail system is zero tailpipe emissions. If low carbon electricity sources can be used for electrifying minerals transportation, the emissions could potentially be greatly reduced. However, the overall or full fuel cycle (FFC) emissions of electric rail under current electricity production scenarios from mainly fossil fuels indicate that diesel locomotives produce lower emissions (45% lower FFC CO2-eq/ntk) (Appelbaum Consulting Group, 2008). Electried rail networks exist, mainly in central Queensland for coal transportation (Queensland Rail, 2009) However, remote, long distance transport is involved for most major mines in production, which is a barrier to installation of new electried rail. If oil supply security and potential for utilising renewable power sources are factors of importance, then this option may become viable. In order to gain the greenhouse benets from the electrication of rail however, it is important to utilise renewable energy sources. The proportion of renewable electricity generation in Australia is only approximately 4% in total, one quarter of which is contributed by wind and solar (ABARE, 2009b). The potential of renewable energy sources in key mining regions is, however, generally quite high (DEWHA, 2010). Most areas in Australia have high solar insolation, which is benecial for solar energy collection. The Pilbara is one such area, where very high solar insolation (DEWHA, 2010) and a high concentration of mines could make electried rail with local solar energy production an attractive option (and potentially reduce up to 60% of domestic transport emissions). Other renewable energy sources are mostly associated with coastal areas, which could supply the national electricity grid which in turn could supply electricity to the minerals sector. The main barrier to this mitigation strategy is lack of infrastructure in terms of production and storage capacity, transmission capacity, and electrication of the rail corridors.

Table 5 Land required to produce sufcient biofuel for given rates of domestic transport biodiesel substitution. Bio-fuel oil source Oil production L/ha Corn Soybean Canola Coconut Oil palm Microalgae (70 wt.% oil) Microalgae (30 wt.% oil) 172 446 1190 2689 5950 136,900 58,700 Land required for given percentage substitution (ha) 5% 205,900 79,400 29,800 18,700 13,200 5950 260 10% 411,700 158,800 59,500 37,400 26,300 11,900 520 20% 823,400 317,500 119,000 74,900 52,700 23,800 1000 50% 2059,000 793,900 297,500 187,100 131,700 59,500 2600 100% 4117,000 1588,000 595,100 374,300 263,300 119,000 5200

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5.2. Efciency - hybrid locomotives Hybrid vehicles offer higher efciency fuel usage by capturing lost energy with regenerative braking. Life cycle emissions are estimated to be approximately 40% less than conventional vehicles (Tahara, 2001; Sandy Thomas, 2009). Although developing a eet of hybrid locomotives would not require major infrastructure changes, it requires modications to the locomotive to include an electric motor, a high capacity battery and the software to coordinate the operation. The battery, in particular, is of key importance in terms of the impact and applicability of this technology as the batteries would use of lithium and rare earth metals which are likely to have a high level of embodied energy. In addition, the cost and lifetime of these batteries would need to be analysed to determine if this technology would be viable. Hybrid locomotives are being trialled by Rio Tinto in an effort to reduce fuel costs and environmental impacts of emissions (Rio Tinto, 2008). 5.3. On-site processing Some mining areas, such Mount Isa and Olympic Dam, have smelters and/or reneries on-site or nearby, where concentrate is rened to very high percentage of metal product. With on-site processing to high grade metal product the mass of material transported is greatly reduced, thus reducing total emissions. The contained metal concentration of base metal concentrate products may vary however some typical grades are: copper at 3040% (Mining-Technology.com, 2010), lead at 50%, zinc at 52% (Terramin Australia, 2010) and nickel at 1314% (Mining-Technology.com, 2010). While the actual grade from each operation would vary, for this analysis it was assumed this is the standard product specication for all base metal mine producers. The saving on material transported when the concentrates were all rened to metal of 99.99% purity would be 1.47Mt. In terms of GHG, this would equate to reducing the transportation-based emissions by only approximately 0.3%. If this scenario is extended to iron ore and bauxite, assuming conservatively that the average grades were 60% and 40% respectively,2 then the emissions reductions for transportation in the industry are approximately 18%. There are a number of drawbacks to this strategy. Firstly, a mineral processing plant is very capital intensive. If the mine life is too short, setting up a smelter or renery might not be feasible. The production of an individual mine might not reach an optimum throughput for a downstream processing plant, in which case it might require a group of mines to produce sufcient ore. The validity of this method in reducing emissions is only applicable to a global emissions balance, as on-site processing in Australia would typically entail an increase in national emissions, but a decrease in global emissions. On base metals alone, this strategy would not be sufcient to reduce emissions in any signicant sense. The current economic drivers in Australia in general do not favour on-site processing compared with offshore downstream processing particularly for smelting and rening. However, in some cases the introduction of an emission trading scheme or equivalent could tip the balance in favour of on-site processing in Australia. 5.4. Carbon offsets The carbon offset considered here is the planting of trees to permanently sequester carbon dioxide. Other offsets such as purchas-

Table 7 Land required to be planted with trees to offset carbon emissions. Carbon sequestration rate t CO2/ha/yr 1 3.25 5.5 Land required for given percentage sequestration (ha/yr) 5% 218,200 67,100 39,700 10% 436,400 134,300 79,400 20% 872,900 268,600 158,700 50% 2182,200 671,500 396,800 100% 4364,500 1342,900 793,500

Table 8 Percentage of Australian mining land required to sequester given percentage of emissions. Carbon sequestration rate Land required for given percentage sequestration (% of Australian mining land usage) 5% 5.8 1.8 1.1 10% 11.5 3.6 2.1 20% 23.1 7.1 4.2 50% 57.7 17.8 10.5 100% 115 35.5 21.0

t CO2/ha/yr 1 3.25 5.5

ing the carbon reduction from projects in developing countries under the Kyoto Protocols Clean Development Mechanism were not considered. Tables 7 and 8 presents estimates of land required to be planted with trees each year in order to offset carbon emissions through sequestration using sequestration rates from Hassall & Associates Pty Ltd. (1998). A comparison with the earlier gures for biofuel production (refer to Tables 5 and 6) shows that the required land area for one year of carbon sequestration in trees is similar to the ongoing land usage for maximum biofuel production land usage. This may make this offset source unfeasible in the long term. 6. Discussion Table 9 shows the estimates of potential mitigation of emissions from implementing a number of alternative strategies for reducing minerals transport GHG impacts. Table 10 highlights some of the more relevant barriers and enablers for the mitigation options. If a total reduction in emissions was sought, the only technically feasible options would be renewable-based electric or hydrogen transport. However, the implementation of these options would be hindered by the lack of infrastructure both for electricity/ hydrogen generation and for electrication of the rail lines or provision of hydrogen. Even if it was possible to use renewable energy for all current electricity usage in minerals transport, a reduction of only 1% of overall (domestic and international) emissions could be achieved. Hydrogen fuel cell locomotives have the theoretical potential to produce no emissions if a renewable hydrogen source is utilised. However, in the current state of play, natural gas reforming would be the most likely source, which could reduce emissions by about 30%. The lack of infrastructure for production, transmission and refuelling, as well as the lack of proven fuel cell locomotive technology would all be barriers to implementation. Carbon offsets could be used on their own to produce the required mitigation, but the land area required for permanent revegetation would eliminate this option in the longer term. A more appropriate approach for utilising carbon offsets would be through a portfolio of mitigation options. Two fuel-switching options examined are biodiesel and natural gas. Under the most positive forecasts, biofuels may be able to mitigate approximately 83% of the current overall emissions (assuming diesel and fuel oil can be substituted). In the short term,

2 Conservatively in the sense that these are relatively high grades, which give corresponding low reduction in mass transported.

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Table 9 Potential mitigation strategies for reducing mineral transportation emissions. Mitigation strategy Mitigation potential (kt CO2-eq/y) Biodiesel Natural gas Hybrid diesel-electric Renewable electricity Hydrogen vehicle On-site processing Carbon offsets Ancillary rail Biofuel DB5 Biofuel DB100 NG for diesel 40% reduction in diesel usage Utilising 100% renewable-based catenary-electric locomotives Converting to renewable electricity for current electric usage only Hydrogen fuel cell locomotive (substituting for diesel - H2 from NG) Base metals Base metals, Bauxite, Iron Ore Tree plantations Higher efciency rail instead of Hire and reward Convert all transport to ancillary rail Convert current electric rail to ancillary diesel 4200 83,900 19,400 1380 4360 910 37,600 320 18,390 4360 1790 2420 750 Overall domestic & international (%) 4.2 83.2 19.2 1.4 4.3 0.9 37.2 0.3 18.2 4.3 1.8 2.4 0.7 Domestic only (%) 3.3 65.9 15.2 31.4 99.2 20.8 29.5 0.4 26.1 99.2 40.7 54.9 17.1

Table 10 Potential barriers and enablers to uptake. Mitigation strategy Biodiesel Natural gas Barriers  Water availability  Local pollutant production from combustion  NG resource availability  Requires conversion of current engines  Local pollutant production from combustion  Requires large energy storage capacity  Requires additional software and equipment  Infrastructure required for rail electrication and renewable energy generation  High cost of infrastructure  Infrastructure required for hydrogen generation, transmission and refuelling  Fuel cells still expensive and relatively untested  Uncertain benet  Expense of additional infrastructure may not pay for itself  Adds to national emissions of carbon  Availability of land over a long time period Enablers  Alternative source of farm income  Well known technology

Hybrid diesel-electric Renewable electricity

 Relatively well-supported technology in the automotive industry  Socially accepted  Economics may be better in regional locations  Many mining operations in areas of high renewable potential  Potential to move to 100% emissions reduction with renewable-based hydrogen production

Hydrogen vehicle

On-site processing Carbon offsets

 Higher value export product     Socially accepted May provide income to farmers Could simultaneously rehabilitate land Potential easy-win option for some operations

Ancillary rail

 Requires transfer of operation of railways to more efcient operators  Local pollutant production from combustion

Table 11 Potential for mitigation of domestic minerals transportation greenhouse emissions.a Timeframe Mitigation strategy Biodiesel Natural gas Hybrid diesel-electric Renewable electricity Hydrogen vehicles On-site processing Carbon offsets Ancillary rail
a

Short term(<10 yrs) Low (3%) Low Low Medium (up to 21%) Low Low High (up to 100%) Medium (up to 41%)

Medium term(1025 yrs) Medium Medium (up to 15%) Medium (up to 32%) Medium Medium (up to 30%) Low Medium High(up to 55%)

Long term(>25 yrs) High (up to 66%) Low Low High (up to 100%) High (up to 100%) Medium (up to 26%) Low Low

Percentages indicate potential percentage reduction in emissions from minerals transportation.

reductions of 3% could be obtained through the use of a 5% biodiesel blend. Higher blends may require engine conversions, which would be a barrier to implementation. Likewise, natural gas conversions may be able to reduce the emissions by 19%, but the required change of engine would hinder take-up. On-site processing to metal could result in up to 18% emissions reductions, but would not be likely to be undertaken due to the

additional infrastructure costs. Also, the gains in transport emissions reduction would be more than offset by the increase in emissions from the additional processing. Running the rail networks more efciently could result in improvements in efciency of up to approximately 40% reduction in emissions. Ancillary rail networks (such as those run by Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton in the Pilbara) are typically far more efcient

Y. Li et al. / Minerals Engineering 24 (2011) 14301439 Table 12 Potential for mitigation of overall minerals transportation greenhouse emissions. Timeframe Mitigation strategy Biodiesel Natural gas Hybrid diesel-electric rail Renewable electricity Hydrogen vehicles On-site processing Carbon offsets Ancillary rail Short term (<10 yrs) Low (4%) Low Low Low Low Low Low Low (up to 2%) Medium term (1025 yrs) Medium Medium (up to 19%) Low (up to 2%) Low Medium (up to 37%) Low Low Low (up to 2%) Long term (>25 yrs) High (up to 83%) Low Low High (up to 100%) High (up to 100%) Medium (up to 18%) Low Low

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than hire and reward rail (Appelbaum Consulting Group, 2008). However, this approach could result in difcult political and practical inter-organisational challenges. Based on the analysis presented in this section, Tables 11 and 12 summarise the likely potential for emissions reduction from possible mitigation strategies at different timeframes into the future. While carbon offset is the strategy in the short term to most likely make the biggest mitigation of GHG emissions on Australian domestic transportation, there is no short term strategy that would make a signicant impact on mitigating GHG emissions from an overall transportation (domestic and international) perspective. 7. Conclusions The analysis presented in this paper indicates that a conservative estimate of current emissions from the transportation of Australian minerals is 100.8Mt CO2-eq/yr, comprising 4.4Mt CO2-eq/yr from Australian domestic minerals transport and 96.4Mt CO2-eq/yr from international transport. This represents 125% of the 79.4Mt CO2-eq/yr that the industry emits from on-site (Scope 1) and electricity-based (Scope 2) emissions (McLellan, 2009). The transportation of bulk minerals iron ore, coal and bauxite accounts for 99% of total GHG emissions and the core transport modes are rail and ship. The majority of this transport is fuelled by diesel or fuel oil, which was therefore the main focus of many of the mitigation suggestions. From a domestic transport perspective, carbon offsetting in the short term could make the biggest impact in mitigating GHG emissions. From an overall transport perspective (domestic and international), there was no strategy in the short term that could signicantly mitigate carbon emissions. However, in the medium to longer-term, biodiesel and hydrogen transport appear to be the most likely strategies that could signicantly mitigate GHG emissions. Acknowledgements This research work was carried out under the auspice and with the nancial support of the Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Resource Processing (www.csrp.com.au), which was established and supported under the Australian Governments Cooperative Research Centres Program. References
ABARE, 2009a. Australian Mineral Statistics, September Quarter 2009. Canberra, Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics.

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