Element 3 – Post Closure Land Use
Mined lands may be returned to pre-mining land use, post closure. This is not always desired or possible, but should be evaluated. A wide variety of alternative uses for mined lands are available. These could include adapting post-closure landscapes for forestry, agriculture or wildlife habitat, or use of land as recreational areas.
Some post-closure land uses (p21) have the possibility of generating economic benefits. ‘Repurposing’ is a term often used to refer to activities that have the possibility to generate income from closure activities. This may ensure transfer of the site to a third party for relinquishment, or provide an offset for continuing post-closure operating and maintenance costs.
Principles for post closure land use evaluation:
- Evaluate early (Tool: Social Transition Checklist can assist)
- Use the knowledge base
- Consider land capability
- Involve stakeholders (Tool: Key Messages for Social Transition can assist)
- Map the potential land use options
- Look for beneficial uses (Tool: Screening Alternatives for Repurposing can assist)
- Be adaptable
- Consider the legislative framework
- Identify and address failure mechanisms
Engagement on post-closure land use
- The local community should be involved in the development of the closure vision and development of post-closure land use. Community participation is critical to ensure the local community’s ownership of the results
- Mining companies should guide conversations and provide examples of realistic options for post-closure land use, considering both technical and economic feasibility
- The timing of the engagement will also shape discussions – assessments are less likely to be in depth in early stages of engagement
Top Tips:
Develop maps of the post-closure landscape and evaluate post-closure land use for areas with common capability. At the earlier stages of planning, these may be relatively large/coarse blocks of land and broad categories of land capability. As closure planning reaches more detailed levels, additional detail on land capability may be added as required.
Tool: Screening Alternatives for Repurposing
Tool: Key Messages for Social Transition
Tool: Social Transition Activities Checklist
Community, Economics, Environment, Ethical Business, Management, Rehabilitation
Pioneering Sustainable Transition To Post Closure (Teck)
Co-creating strategies to mitigate the economic impact of a pending mine closure
Community, Economics, Environment, Ethical Business, Management, Rehabilitation
Engagement for the Hunter Valley Region, New South Wales, Australia
Responding to concerns generates trust with communities, governments and mining companies