Holographic models of closure landscapes for stakeholder engagement: when you need more than words and pictures

Authors: Franklin, KA; MacInnis, CR; Roca, J; Magnusson, GR; Burton, BTJ; Enos, RN Download Paper Open access courtesy of:

DOI https://doi.org/10.36487/ACG_repo/2215_07

Cite As:
Franklin, KA, MacInnis, CR, Roca, J, Magnusson, GR, Burton, BTJ & Enos, RN 2022, 'Holographic models of closure landscapes for stakeholder engagement: when you need more than words and pictures', in AB Fourie, M Tibbett & G Boggs (eds), Mine Closure 2022: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Mine Closure, Australian Centre for Geomechanics, Perth, pp. 145-156, https://doi.org/10.36487/ACG_repo/2215_07



Abstract:
The Giant Mine Remediation Project (Giant) and Faro Mine Remediation Project (Faro) are abandoned mine projects in northern Canada with long legacies and many complex challenges. BGC Engineering Inc. has been working with Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs (CIRNAC) using holographic projections to collaborate with First Nations and local communities on key mine closure information. This paper shares experience with using Microsoft’s mixed reality HoloLens devices (HoloLens) as a tool that creates a safe and equitable environment to collaboratively engage with communities where previous experience and technical understanding are not prerequisites to contributing. This is important, as engaging in meaningful discussions involving mine closure planning involves effectively communicating engineering and earth science information to rights holders and stakeholders with diverse experiences. The Faro project is beginning to develop several 3D digital models to encourage conversation, discussion, and engagement on the progress of mine closure, showcasing a time lapse of how the mine has changed over the past few years and its current state, and to explore the staged approach to reclamation. HoloLens was used to incorporate a broad spectrum of data into holographic models that were shared with multiple users to experience together. The digital models incorporated historical topographic and aerial imagery and current conditions, and include proposed future conditions based on designs and reclamation plans. The participants can collaboratively experience this collated information from different viewpoints, including in tabletop models, as 3D objects in the middle of the room, and as immersive 3D scenes. At Giant, there is a complex underground mining legacy that the community wanted to better understand. Holographic models were created that allow users to visualise and walk around the surface and underground together, as a community, and ask questions, voice concerns and ideas, and see how groundwater conditions change throughout the seasons and into the future. Additionally, as there are several locations throughout the mine that will be reclaimed based on input from the community, it is important to be able to visualise the design beyond 2D engineering-based drawings. Real-life-scale immersive views were created, providing experiences of how these areas might look once reclamation is finished. We hope that by sharing the experience of sharing information in this way that the state of practice for creating holistic and sustainable mine closure designs that reflect the input of rights holders and stakeholders can be advanced.

Keywords: mine closure, remediation, reclamation, community engagement, mixed reality, holograms, Microsoft HoloLens, Clirio, reconciliation, Indigenous engagement

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