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Pit lakes may present significant risks to ecological and human receiving environments but can also provide beneficial end use opportunities. The understanding of many processes that influence the magnitude of these risks and opportunities remains limited, and even where our understanding is adequate, the application of that knowledge is not consistently applied. From initial planning to long-term closure, regulation and corporate management of pit lake closure can be improved to realise more sustainable pit lake legacies. In this two-part manuscript, we recommend focus areas for future research by academics (Part 1), and strategies to structurally improve the practice of pit lake closure for mining industry regulators, corporate sustainability officers, global practice leads, and site mine closure planners (Part 2). Here we identify barriers that often limit the understanding of pit lake processes and closure practices and suggest ways that corporate leaders, closure practitioners, and regulators can improve pit lake management. Recommended corporate changes include: conducting risk assessments at an early planning stage; funding pit lake research and trials; allowing data sharing and case study publication; avoiding the simplifying assumption of a fully mixed pit lake when making predictions; integrating climate change into pit lake predictions; improving the quality of technical reporting; generating industry guidance for pit lake rehabilitation; maximizing opportunities for subaqueous, in-pit disposal of mine wastes; creating a positive legacy through beneficial uses of pit lakes; and verifying predictions using long-term monitoring. Recommended regulatory advancements include: raising expectations of corporate pit lake closure planning and execution; acknowledging good pit lake closure examples; balancing the need to simulate long closure periods with expectations of model reliability; considering the value of pit lakes as future water resources during permitting; and requiring closure costing and bonding commensurate to closure risk.

This article presents the evolution of legal regulations, which have played a key role in enforcing the obligation of planned mine closure. Particular attention is paid to ensuring financial resources for this purpose. Any legal regulations, in order to be effective, must provide for the necessary funds, which should be collected before the commencement of the closure process. It is difficult to determine its exact time frame and costs, which makes the task highly challenging to decision-making bodies. There is a need to match uncertain, distant expenses with precise legal provisions. The example of Polish lignite mining shows the effectiveness of decommissioning regulations. Not only will we face the effects of its closure, but also the next generation will. Unfortunately, it was not until 2001 that regulations were introduced to provide financial security to support mine closures. However, they have shortcomings because the mine closure process is planned only at the final stage of extraction rather than being initiated much earlier. Therefore, the funds collected in the Obligatory Mine Decommissioning Fund (FLZG), usually 10% of the so-called exploitation charge, are insufficient. In the case of Polish mines, payments to the FLZG cover only part of the liquidation works. Administrative actions eliminate these negative effects of the legal regulations presented above. The Polish government has secured financing for the mine liquidation process by consolidating them with lignite-fired power plants. Currently, Poland plans to build six nuclear power plants. In their case, such a consolidation step will be impossible. Therefore, taking into account the experience from lignite mining, a financial mechanism for securing their decommissioning should be created now.

This paper investigates the socio-economic impacts and coping strategies adopted by the local community of Pilgrim’s Rest in Mpumalanga following the closure of the gold mine. A questionnaire-based survey, administered through face-to-face interaction with the local community and the stakeholders, was the main instrument used to obtain the data. The study recorded both negative and positive impacts of mine closure and the coping strategies. The negative socio-economic impacts of mine closure include: rise in poverty, deterioration of living standards, increase in outward migration, emergence of crime and diseases, decline in the provision of services, reduction in employment opportunities in the mine and second-order employment, loss of foreign exchange, limited money circulation, reduction of buying power and in the payment of rates by the community. The positive impacts of mine closure include: an increase in government initiatives aimed at helping the community, strong social cohesion of the local people and a focus on agriculture in the area. The coping strategies of the host community following the mine closure comprise of dependence on severance packages, support from relatives, finding jobs elsewhere, practising agriculture, and engagement in the informal sector. The study’s significance lies in highlighting the need for proper planning, in order to ease the diverse socio-economic impacts following the closure of the mines.

Mine reclamation and closure in the traditional territories of Indigenous rights holders in Alberta, Canada, raises issues of environmental, social, and cultural significance. We highlight insights developed collaboratively with members of a First Nation about their lived experience with the persistence of oil sands mine activities and reclaimed lands, and apply a participatory and inclusive planning approach with the potential to empower host communities with an equitable role in the planning and decision-making for sustainable socioeconomic, cultural, and environmental post-closure outcomes. Two different cultural activities were evaluated for their effectiveness in empowering intercultural dialogue and guiding creation of a shared post-closure vision between a First Nation and an oil sands company. We share perspectives, barriers, and opportunities for intercultural understanding and participation in mine reclamation and closure decision-making to ameliorate cultural land use impacts. We demonstrate that application of inclusive cultural practices and protocols in mine reclamation and closure planning empowered intercultural dialogue; enhanced understanding across cultural paradigms; supported shared project decision-making; produced moments of overlapping reclamation stories; and resulted in a parallel project vision for guiding cultural and landscape reclamation.

Large-scale closure of coal mines is required for China to achieve carbon neutrality. However, what this means for methane emissions, particularly for abandoned mine methane (AMM), is highly uncertain. Here we construct a detailed and dynamic coal mine database to estimate China’s coal methane emissions during 2011–2019 and evaluate future emission trajectories based on different mine closure policies. We find that AMM emissions have been largely underestimated, which leads to an increased proportion of AMM in China’s total coal methane emissions, and are expected to become the dominant source by 2035. We develop a coal mine closure strategy prioritizing high-gas-content mines. Compared with the current closure strategy based on mine scale, this strategy could reduce cumulative methane emissions by 67 Tg (26%) to 2050, potentially reaching 100 Tg (39%) with improved methane recovery and utilization practices. Methane emissions from abandoned mines have been underestimated in emissions inventories even though they may become a dominant source of emissions as coal is phased out. Using a detailed bottom-up dataset, the authors find that a strategy targeting the closure of gas-rich mines could have a large mitigation potential

Managing mine water in the best possible way is of great importance and depends on various factors like environmental protection, regulatory compliance and human health. To understand the complex chemical and hydrodynamic processes within the mine pool, it is critical to establish effective practices and management strategies. This study focuses on the characterisation of hydrodynamic processes affecting flooded underground mines, emphasising the importance of density stratification. The investigation of 29 ore and coal mine shafts and their corresponding physico-chemical depth profile measurements was aimed to compare the profiles with each other, while also taking into account the shaft geometry and the layout of the mine. Finding cross-links between the profiles, which allow universal statements on stratification in flooded underground mines, was the main objective. Results of this study indicate that stratification occurs in almost all flooded underground mines, and the uppermost stratified water body is usually located in the area of the first or second connected level. Furthermore, stratification is often responsible for considerably better quality of the uppermost water body. Hence, stratification is fundamental to mine water management and has a direct influence on the quality of the discharged water. This knowledge is invaluable in developing strategies to optimise mine closure, mine water management, treatment planning and future mine layouts.

Creating a soft-landing path for mine closure is key to the sustainability of the mining region. In this research, we presents a case of mine closure in Soroako, a small mining town in the north-east of South Sulawesi province, in the center of Sulawesi Island in Indonesia. Especially we investigates corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs of a mining company, PT Vale Indonesia Tbk (PTVI), towards a soft-landing of mine closure in this region. The data of the CSR programs are gathered from in-depth interviews, the annual reports and managerial reports. Furthermore we presents an integrated view of CSR to close mining in a sustainable manner. We then evaluate CSR strategies of the company and its performance from this viewpoint. Based on these steps, the way to improve the CSR mine closure scenario for enhancing the regional sustainability is discussed and recommended.

Active mines regularly commit to post-mining land uses (PMLUs) several decades before their planned closure, setting closure outcomes and commitments in regulatory instruments during the initial, pre-mining phases. Considering the mounting global challenges of water, energy, food, and livelihood security, as well as climate change, many of these PMLUs may be considered sub-optimal for a future context. Whether new land uses are being defined or existing land uses are being refined, options for PMLUs should be selected using various planning lenses. In this paper, three of these lenses are considered to demonstrate how post-mining landscapes could contribute to addressing complex global challenges through effective mine closure transitions. These lenses are: (i) safe, stable, and non-polluting; (ii) suitable, practicable, and aligned with land capability and local/regional needs, supported by a comprehensive knowledge base; and (iii) integration of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus. This approach is presented as a proposed conceptual framework, demonstrating how the SDGs can be utilised as a lens for selecting PMLUs, and which of these PMLUs are aligned with addressing water, energy, food, and/or livelihood security, as well as climate change mitigation. Selected case studies are highlighted, after which regulatory considerations and policy recommendations are made.

Human activities during each phase of coal mine life cycle greatly affect groundwater environment. The groundwater environment destruction is not just only the destruction of underground structure but also the social problems caused by available groundwater resources reduction, as well as the environmental problems affecting ecosystem and human health. Moreover, the groundwater environmental risk of coal mining is complex, dynamic, and long-term. Therefore, a framework and quantitative method for groundwater environmental risk analysis at different phases of the mine life cycle was presented, which is composed of the groundwater system destruction risk (GSDR) and social-economic-ecological vulnerability (SEEV) assessment. The framework was applied in Hongshan abandoned coal mine, North China. Based on the aquifer structure destruction, groundwater flow field evolution, contamination, and social-economic influence analysis, 12 main controlling factors for the GSDR and 7 factors for the SEEV were determined and quantified separately. The results showed that the groundwater contamination of the Hongshan mine mainly occurred after closure, caused by the cross-strata pollution of mine water, which significantly reduced the groundwater available resources, which greatly affected local social-economy sustainable development and residents’ health. The Hongshan mine closure increased groundwater environmental risk, with the GSDR high-risk zone being 12.51 km 2 larger than that during the mining phase and the SEEV was calculated at a high level. This framework promotes systematic integration of the groundwater environmental risk assessment in mine life cycle.

The extraction of mineral deposits is often associated with the occurrence of acid mine drainage (AMD), which can persist even after mine closure due to remaining sulfide minerals. This study investigates a 200-year-old abandoned mine and its impacts on nearby water resources. The study area is well known for Kuroko ore deposits located upstream of spring and river water resources. To elucidate the impacts of the abandoned mine site, mine water and spring and river water samples were collected, and their geochemical properties were monitored between 2021 and 2022. Groundwater, seepage, and surface water at the mine site showed AMD characteristics with Ca 2+ –SO 4 2− /Mg 2+ –SO 4 2− type. AMD-affected mine water showed a low pH range of 3.40–4.84, with elevated SO 4 2− of up to 326 mg/L. At the downstream of the mine site, one of the groundwater samples showed pH of 3.55 and average concentrations of 5.03 mg/L of Al, 2.06 mg/L of Cu, 2.06 mg/L of Fe, 0.42 mg/L of Pb, and 8.04 mg/L of Zn, inferring the contaminant transport. Saturation indices of the mine water also indicated that the solubility controlling phases, anglesite, gibbsite, ferrihydrite, and jarosite influence the concentrations of Al, Fe, and Pb at the mine site. Meanwhile, spring and river water samples showed Ca 2+ –HCO 3 − , Ca 2+ –SO 4 2− , and Na + –K + –HCO 3 − type with a circumneutral pH range of 5.59–8.02 and they were unaffected by AMD. The principal component analysis (PCA) of the spring and river water samples also showed higher loadings for Ca, Mg, NO 3 − , and Cl − reflecting the abundance of carbonate and evaporite minerals while the mine water and groundwater downstream showed higher loadings of Cl − , Fe, SO 4 2− , and Zn. The results suggest that the past mining activities only influenced the mine site and groundwater downstream. Consequently, the fate and migration of contaminants in the downstream of the mine site should be evaluated in the near future. Graphical Abstract