Clark, M, O'Kane, M, Koehler, B & Fung, K 2025, 'Mine closure as a process: leveraging operational efficiency models to achieve land transition', in S Knutsson, AB Fourie & M Tibbett (eds), Mine Closure 2025: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Mine Closure, Australian Centre for Geomechanics, Perth, pp. 1-13, https://doi.org/10.36487/ACG_repo/2515_43
(https://papers.acg.uwa.edu.au/p/2515_43_Clark/)
Abstract: In the traditional mine life cycle, mine closure is treated as the end point: the final destination at the end of a long ride, and so far into the future as to warrant limited consideration. Planning for closure is often focused on achieving a ‘least regret outcome’ rather than optimised to achieve the highest value post-mining land use. In this traditional context, value can be quantified through asset liability and management costs associated with post-closure maintenance and water treatment, the ability to achieve timely regulatory approvals, and engagement requirements to meet stakeholder and rightsholder expectations. As a result, land transition efforts suffer from significant lost-opportunity costs and limited outcomes. For an industry as experienced with dynamic, iterative planning as mining, this typical outcome is derisory. As an industry we are experts in operational efficiency models, from constraint identification to flow efficiency models to cross-functional flow models. These same models are rarely applied to closure planning because closure is treated as an end point, not an ongoing process. This paper makes the argument for closure planning as a process with an overarching vision throughout all stages of the mine’s life cycle, demonstrating how the application of operational efficiency models to closure planning can uncover value, reduce opportunity cost and empower stakeholders and rightsholders throughout exploration and operations, and into post-mining land transition. 

Keywords: operations for closure, capacity building, land transition, post-closure landscapes, stakeholder engagement