ABSTRACT
40Environmental assessment is a planning, decision making and management process spanning the entire life cycle of a mining project. The Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (often also referred to as Environmental Impact Assessment or ESIA in short) study is only one part of the process, usually applied in the feasibility and design stage, or sometimes even in the conceptual stage of mine development. The aim of an ESIA is to ensure that potentially adverse environmental and social impacts are foreseen and addressed at an early stage in the planning cycle so as to pre-empt negative environmental or social issues during mine construction and operation. An equally important aim is to ensure that consequent project opportunities are maximized and project benefits are justly distributed. In brief the ESIA aims to eliminate the negative and to accentuate the positive project impacts.
