Application of digital innovation and automation for sustainable mine closure monitoring

Authors: Adams, M; Burkell, K; Dagenais, A-M; Lato, M; Zahradka, A Download Paper Open access courtesy of:

DOI https://doi.org/10.36487/ACG_repo/2515_63

Cite As:
Adams, M, Burkell, K, Dagenais, A-M, Lato, M & Zahradka, A 2025, 'Application of digital innovation and automation for sustainable mine closure monitoring', 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. 1-14, https://doi.org/10.36487/ACG_repo/2515_63



Abstract:
Effective mine closure monitoring is crucial for environmental protection, regulatory compliance and longterm stability of post-mining landscapes. Closure monitoring provides information on the site’s condition and progress towards meeting the defined success criteria. Current techniques and approachescan be robust, but often lack integration and automation, leading to inefficiencies and missed opportunities for proactive management. This paperdemonstrates how a geospatial digital knowledge base can transform mine closure monitoring by integrating diverse datasets, automating analysis and providing actionable insights. The proposed approach includes the automatic ingestion, processing and visualisation of remote sensing, instrumentation and inspection data. By pairing historical data with closure criteria, and automatically integrating real-time data, owners have a comprehensive and up-to-date understanding of site conditions, facilitating timely and informed decision-making. By enhancing data management and analysis, project efficiency and compliance can be significantly improved, ultimately leading to more effective mine closure outcomes. Integrating real-time instrumentation data provides a dynamic view of site conditions, enabling early detection of potential risks. Summary dashboards consolidate these datasets and compare them against closure criteria, streamlining reporting processes and facilitating regulatory compliance. Finally, access to historical site information through the knowledge base accelerates root cause analysis in the event of anomalies or failures, saving time and resources while improving decision-making. This paper highlights the application of innovative monitoring approaches by providing an example application to a closed tailings storage facility. By leveraging the CambioTM platform, complex earth science data can be transformed into actionable insights, enabling better decision-making and risk management. For mine closure, this approach provides a holistic, proactive and cost-effective solution for long-term site management.

Keywords: mine closure, monitoring, knowledge base, automation, lidar, photogrammetry, InSAR, multispectral/hyperspectral imagery, remote sensing, change detection, Cambio

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