When a Mine Closes: What Happens to Jobs, Land and Communities

MPi Life

March 14, 2017

What happens to a mine when it has finished its productive life?

A recent report found Australia has some 60,000 abandoned mine sites, some dating back to the original Gold Rush, raising serious concerns about mine rehabilitation after closure and how land is restored once mining ends.

The report, by the Australia Institute, said there was evidence that only “a handful” of those mine sites had been properly rehabilitated, despite modern expectations around mine closure and remediation in Australia.

So, what is actually supposed to happen when a mine closes and reaches the end of its productive life?

What happens when a mine closes? (The mine closure process)

Once production at a mine stops, a smaller workforce usually remains on site to manage the mine closure process. Their role is to safely shut down and decommission the operation. This includes removing machinery that can be relocated, reused or sold, often to other mining sites. Pipes are drained and scrapped, sheds are dismantled, and all waste and rubbish are removed from the site.

After this, mine remediation and rehabilitation can begin (and this is the stage which the Australia Institute report says is not often happening). Best practice requires returning the land and any local watercourses to “an acceptable standard”. That involves making sure the land is stable and that water is of sufficiently high quality — which is not always easy, depending on what has been mined and what chemicals have been used in the process.

At this stage, any hazardous materials are removed, topsoil is replaced, and native vegetation, including grasses and trees is replanted. While nature is expected to eventually reclaim the site, it does not happen automatically. Ongoing mine site monitoring programs are meant to track how effective rehabilitation has been, so issues can be identified and corrected early.

There may also be ongoing maintenance. For instance, the water at some sites needs ongoing treatment to ensure it is safe for the environment.

Mine rehabilitation rules in Australia: who is responsible?

For more than a century, there were no formal rules governing mine site remediation in Australia. It wasn’t until the 1970s that environmental regulations began to emerge that resemble today’s mine rehabilitation requirements. This delay is one of the main reasons Australia has so many abandoned and potentially dangerous mine sites, including unmarked shafts and unstable open pits.

As a result of the potential hazards to both people and the environment, governments around the world have put mine closure regulations in place in a bid to ensure some level of remediation is in place. These often start before a new mine is even allowed to go ahead, with strict environmental conditions being placed on their approval.

Governments are also working to clean up old mine sites, which represent very expensive (indeed, billion dollar) liabilities. In 2012, for example, the New South Wales auditor general declared that: “derelict mines may represent the largest category of contamination liability for the state”. And one of Australia’s most famous miners, Clive Palmer, was ordered by the Government in 2013 to clean up some 300 abandoned mine sites.

However, responsibility is not always clear. When companies no longer exist or ownership is disputed, the cost of mine site remediation often falls to the government.

Australia now has a national mine remediation policy, which you can read here.

This Mining Life: Mount Isa, QLD

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