A modified semi-quantitative framework for assessing the impacts and sustainability of iron ore mining in a biodiverse forest

Mining in biodiversity-rich forest regions presents complex trade-offs between economic development and ecological integrity. This study assesses the sustainability of a major iron ore mine in eastern India using an integrated framework that combines a modified Folchi (2003) impact matrix with Phillips's (2010) sustainability scoring method. Three key innovations distinguish the proposed approach: (1) incorporation of forest-specific indicators such as biodiversity sensitivity, ecosystem services, and waste and infrastructure pressures; (2) use of signed impact scores to explicitly distinguish positive and negative effects across sustainability components; and (3) application of fuzzy similarity aggregation to reduce uncertainty in expert judgment by weighting inputs from 20 domain experts.

Results show pronounced environmental degradation, with high negative scores in use of territory (62.50), flora and fauna (54.14), biodiversity (51.05), and air quality (38.67), primarily driven by land resource alteration, ecological disturbance, and vehicular activity. In contrast, strong positive contributions were found in the economy (−78.29), livelihood (−40.90), and social development (−33.45), mainly due to employment generation and infrastructure development. Despite the mine's environmental initiatives, the overall sustainability score (S = 0.204) classifies it as ‘very poor’, indicating that environmental costs currently outweigh socio-economic benefits. The study demonstrates a more reliable, transparent, and context-sensitive approach for sustainability assessment in forested mining regions. It emphasizes the need for stricter environmental safeguards to balance development with biodiversity and ecosystem integrity.