Environmental impact assessment studies are mandatory for major industrial or infrastructure projects in most countries. These studies are usually limited to on‐site impacts during exploitation but do not consider indirect impacts generated off‐site or those concerning other steps of the project, including dismantling. National regulations in various countries have recently begun to include these neglected impacts to obtain a better appreciation of project trade‐offs. Several scientists have highlighted the substantial potential of using the life cycle assessment methodology to increase the level of detail and completeness of environmental impact assessment (EIA) studies. Even if mining activities are known to produce significant local impacts, their consequences outside an extraction site have not yet been well documented. The implementation of the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology in the EIA procedure has been carried out in a Au mining project by separating on‐site and off‐site impacts during the entire life cycle of the mine from prospection to site restoration following the end of exploitation. Mining projects occur over large time periods and require diverse materials and processes. The main difficulty of such analysis is the data collection that needs to be extrapolated for some of the activities. Even with these limitations, the Afema case study highlighted the significant share of off‐site impacts (from a spatial perspective) and the major contribution of the exploitation phase of the mine (from a temporal perspective). Operating activities, especially excavation, ore, and waste rock transportation, blasting, ore processing, and tailing treatments, are the main impacts produced during the exploitation phase and are involved in climate change, particulate matter formation, and land destruction. Therefore, this standardized LCA method should be recommended by the regulatory authorities for use in EIA procedures. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2021;17:465–479. © 2020 SETAC

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使用LCA方法的采矿影响评估：象牙海岸阿费玛金​​矿的案例研究

在大多数国家/地区，重大工业或基础设施项目都必须进行环境影响评估研究。这些研究通常仅限于开采过程中的现场影响，但不考虑在现场产生的间接影响或与项目其他步骤（包括拆除）有关的间接影响。各国的国家法规最近已开始将这些被忽略的影响包括在内，以更好地了解项目的取舍。几位科学家强调了使用生命周期评估方法来提高环境影响评估（EIA）研究的详细程度和完整性的巨大潜力。即使已知采矿活动会在当地产生重大影响，但尚未充分记录其在采矿场外的后果。在一个金矿开采项目中，已在环境影响评估程序中实施了生命周期评估（LCA）方法，方法是将整个矿山生命周期中的现场和非现场影响从勘探到结束后的现场恢复分开，剥削。采矿项目耗时较长，需要多种材料和工艺。这种分析的主要困难是某些活动需要推断数据收集。即使存在这些局限性，Afema案例研究也强调了非现场影响的很大一部分（从空间角度来看）和矿山开采阶段的主要贡献（从时间角度来看）。经营活动，尤其是开挖，矿石和废石运输，爆破，矿石加工和尾矿处理，是开发阶段产生的主要影响，涉及气候变化，颗粒物形成和土地破坏。因此，监管机构应建议将此标准LCA方法用于EIA程序。Integr环境评估管理2021; 17：465–479。©2020 SETAC