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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Environ. Eng.
Sec. Environmental Impact Assessment
Volume 3 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fenve.2024.1457723
This article is part of the Research Topic Environmental Impact Assessment in circular economy View all articles

Optimization model for production capacity layout in underground metal mines considering carbon tax policy

Provisionally accepted
Jie Hou Jie Hou 1*Yingyu Gu Yingyu Gu 2Guoqing Li Guoqing Li 1Guangjun Guo Guangjun Guo 3Qianqian Yu Qianqian Yu 3
  • 1 University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China
  • 2 Baosteel Resources Holding (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China
  • 3 Jiaojia Gold Mine, Shandong Gold Group Mining (Laizhou) Co., Ltd, Yantai, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Given that the "carbon peaking" and "carbon neutralization" ("double-carbon") background, carbon tax policy is an important means to promote the green transition of mines and strengthen the development of a green mine industry chain for low-carbon economy. The endeavor to optimize operation decisions in underground metal mines, under the auspices of a carbon tax policy, is directed towards achieving a harmonious blend of economic efficiency and environmental stewardship. It is committed to dealing with the problem of balancing the carbon emission volume and carbon abatement costs. The low-carbon production mode is expected based on the "doublecarbon" target. It contributes to coordinating the efficient resource exploitation and preservation of the environment, which will restrict carbon emissions and reduce environmental governance costs of mines from a long-term perspective. An optimization model for production capacity layout of underground metal mines is presented to obtain optimal carbon reduction schemes that account for technical and economic indexes such as ore tonnage and ore grade conditions associated with the impact of carbon tax policy. The Lingo tool is applied to complete the model solution. Furthermore, the pattern of change in key indexes under the scenario with or without carbon tax is compared and analyzed. The implementation of the model in a gold mine named Jiaojia in China demonstrates its ability to reduce carbon emissions while earning the optimal low-carbon production layout scheme, which indicates that it is an effective decision behavior to properly invest capital expenditures in the research and development of carbon emission reduction technologies. In addition, this paper also puts forward programmatic recommendations for underground metal mines to optimize the low-carbon mining strategy while obtaining the best economic and environmental benefits.

    Keywords: carbon tax, underground metal mines, production capacity layout, Operation decision, Optimization model

    Received: 01 Jul 2024; Accepted: 19 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Hou, Gu, Li, Guo and Yu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jie Hou, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.