How planning can deliver successful mine closures

With regulators imposing a complex and varied raft of requirements on operators, it’s never been more important to take a considered long-range approach to decommissioning mines.

In Australia, mine closure management remains a relatively new field, though it is estimated there are already some 60,000 abandoned mines in the country. Rehabilitation is becoming a focus. For example, the Department of Civil Engineering at Monash University is currently undertaking a mapping project to facilitate remedial strategies.

Phillip Crouse, closure expert and Stantec’s Principal of Mining, says that to mitigate the variety of problems that can arise from a mine’s end of life, planning should start during the exploration phase, not when operations are at the pointy end of winding down.

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