An Integrated Carbon Emission Assessment and Decarbonization Decision-Support System for Open-Pit Metal Mines

Open-pit metal mines require carbon-management tools that connect heterogeneous operational data with process-level accounting and prospective production-plan assessment. This study developed an integrated carbon-emission assessment and decarbonization decision-support system combining a MySQL database, standardized data interfaces and batch imports, a process-level accounting model, and a production-plan-driven scenario model. The boundary covers drilling, blasting, loading, haulage, crushing, beneficiation, and tailings handling, with land-disturbance-induced carbon-stock loss assessed separately. The deployed system was evaluated at the Julong open-pit copper mine using 2025 historical records for computational verification and the 2027 monthly production plan for conditional scenario assessment. Absolute relative differences for electricity, diesel, explosives, and mine-wide emissions were below 3%, with a mean absolute relative difference of 0.99%. Under the 2027 baseline, annual emissions were 1762.53 kt CO2 eq. The combined mitigation scenario reduced emissions by 21.65% and lowered emission intensity from 8.49 to 6.65 t CO2 eq/t concentrate. These results show that the system integrates historical carbon-emission assessment with production-plan-driven decarbonization screening and converts process data into traceable evidence for comparing mitigation options. It therefore serves as a carbon-focused decision-support tool for sustainability-oriented mine planning, although broader applicability requires multi-mine validation and explicit uncertainty analysis.