Sustainable and responsible mining through sound mine closure

This paper provides an overview of planning requirements,including regulatory,and implementation approaches for achieving ecologically sound reclamation and restoration of mines upon closure in the USA.Mine closure includes mined-out areas,decommissioning of plants and structures,and appropriate monitoring of post-mining land,water,and air resources.Although the discussion provides general guidelines,each mine closure site presents unique challenges.The overall chemical composition of coal and associated strata with mineable coal seams,structural characteristics of the deposit,weather patterns,environmental conditions,processing and scale of mining of the deposit,and public and private infrastructure must be considered.Future land use and water resource requirements are also important considerations.The planning and closure activities must ensure that the resultant site has the appropriate post-mining land and water resources use,and the site does not pose any future environmental and health and safety risks.These requirements suggest that closure activities should be integrated with the mining activity planning process from the start.This paper discusses mine closure issues and describes several practices for a surface coal mine in the Western USA.

Risk management for mine closure: A cloud model and hybrid semi-quantitative decision method

Mine closure is associated with many negative impacts on society and the environment.If these effects are not rationally addressed,they would pose risks of mine closure.Thus,a risk management method is needed to mitigate these adverse impacts and address mine-closure issues.An integral framework for mine-closure risk management that includes risk assessment and risk treatment was proposed.Given the fuzziness and randomness of the transformation between qualitative and quantitative knowledge in the risk assessment process,a novel risk assessment method based on the cloud model was presented,which fully considers the uncertainty in risks themselves and in the reasoning process.Closed mine reutilization is an effective risk treatment option in response to the identified high risks,but it requires selecting optimal reutilization strategies for the successful implementation of the reuse plan.To this end,a hybrid semi-quantitative decision method is proposed to optimize decision-making.The results of a case study showed that this risk management methodology can help budget planning for risk treatment and provide an instructional framework to effectively reduce the negative effects of closed mines.

Rehabilitation of Mining Sites: The Case of the Gora/Sabodala Gold Mine in Senegal Prospects for Sustainable Development of a Mine

The southeastern part of Senegal, in West Africa, is home to the country’s first major gold mine owned by Sabodala gold operations SGO, as subsidiary of Teranga Gold Corporation during the timeframe of this study. As part of its expansion, the company opened and operated the Gora satellite mine for 4 years’ exploitation. At the end of the mine’s life, the authorities decided to close the site. In this context, SGO in compliance with its legal, regulatory and normative obligations, has commissioned a study of rehabilitation activities for a better environmental and social management of the Gora gold mine. This study is a first in Senegal and presents the general framework for the rehabilitation of a gold mine which will allow scientists to have several research perspectives in this field. The methodological approach consisted of a participatory process of collecting field data and data from stakeholders directly involved in mine rehabilitation and closure;these data were analyzed and coupled with international best practices in rehabilitation, closure, and post-mine management. Results of the selected options are based on known experiences from around the world, coupled with analysis of the SGO’s field activities results and those obtained from the synthesis of the interview guides from the numerous consultations. This synthesis made possible to align them with international guidelines presented in this document. In this context, the aspects related to the open-pit mine equipment, processing facilities and related infrastructure were a particular interest to the various stakeholders. Thus, the following rehabilitation options were retained by the group constituted by the populations: 1) Backfilling pits, for cultivation practices and development of agribusiness and the establishment of grazing land for livestock;2) Setting up water storage basins for the sustainable development of certain activities around the mine and aquifer recharge while respecting the protection and safety standards of the basin in order to avoid the risks of accidents;3) Returning certain facilities to the communities and the competent State services. These few measures will allow the indigenous populations affected by the mine to participate in the rehabilitation program by integrating all relevant ideas and discussions on the issues of rehabilitation as perceived by the actors involved in the study, as well as the implementation of the best international strategic orientations in this field for sustainable development. In addition, it will be necessary to set up an internal technical committee within the mining company to coordinate the rehabilitation and closure operations with the various departments, and an external technical committee composed of the relevant government departments, the local community, and civil society, among others, to examine and validate the closure options. A closure clearance should be issued to operators who have responsibly closed their mines.

How Should Mine Reclamation Design Effectively Respond to Climate Change? A Mini Review Opinion

Climate change is a growing concern with each of the last three decades being successively warmer than preceding decades. Mine wastes are mandatory required to be reclaimed after mine operation due to their high risks of contaminating environment and huge volumes occupying large useable land resources. However, most traditional mine reclamation plans are designed with an assumption of unchanged, consistent conditions of environment, climate and hydrology conditions, which may not work properly under the global climate change. This paper discussed the previously ignored problem that is how mine reclamation design should effectively respond to climate change. Through reviewing the current responding strategy to the climate change during mine reclamation and closure, this mini review was structured, and the opinion is concluded that the more active the designers consider the factors of climate change, the more manageable, predictable and sustainable the reclaimed ecosystem and landscape are. Nature-based solutions can act as the general guidelines when considering climate change with mine reclamation, and the six-step framework aims more specifically on mine reclamation. The two methods can work together to help designers and regulators to effectively respond to climate change when planning mine reclamation and closure.