The Balancing Act of Mine Closure

Mine closure is a multi- and inter-disciplinary process that should be integrated throughout the entire life of asset. At its core, it is about balance – balancing competing requirements and sometimes inconsistent objectives, balancing technical feasibility with expectations, balancing myopic closure design focus with the landscape scale considerations, balancing the deep technical expertise and data with stakeholder perception, and balancing the biophysical threats and opportunities with the socio-economic and market expectations.

Sometimes, and there are always exceptions, it can be challenging for deep technical experts to balance these aspects without unconscious (or conscious!) bias to their area of expertise. It can also be challenging for those tasked with closing a singular domain or aspect on time and on budget to see the bigger picture; how their design and objectives may fit into the site wide closure or how the site closure ultimately merges into the regional, environmental and socio-economic landscape. Yet these individual tasks, landscapes and outcomes do not exist in isolation; they are a part of a bigger, broader, landscape and system.

Pulling together these individual parts cannot simply be left to chance if we want to achieve durable closure outcomes that exceed the sum of their parts. It’s imperative to involve someone who can integrate these disciplines and objectives to encourage innovation, close knowledge gaps, gain efficiencies and improve closure results.

Call them what you will, closure collaborator, closure planner, closure integrator: they play the part of the conductor of the orchestra, ensuring all the musicians, each expert at their own instrument, are in the orchestral pit, and are all playing the same symphony.
 

The Role of a Generalist: The Closure Integrator

A closure integrator may or may not possess deep technical expertise in a single area. However, they have sufficient experience and understanding to critically analyze information from both technical and non-technical disciplines. They can pull together information about impacts, risks, and proposed mitigations into a broader context. This context includes stakeholder requirements, needs, and desires, as well as post-closure land capability requirements for land use flexibility. Ultimately, they assemble the puzzle by considering economics, feasibility, long-term closure solution durability, business requirements, and reputation.

Integrators have the ability to see all pieces of the puzzle and facilitate the discussions, trade off assessments and options analysis that brings them all together into a cohesive closure strategy. They can identify where the smaller domain, landform or discipline-based objectives are inconsistent from others, and at times, contradictory. The integrators can be the conductor of the orchestra, ensuring all members, while playing their instrument with the skill and technique that has taken them years to hone, are all playing the same symphony. And they can ensure, through harnessing the right people with the right expertise, the symphony is accessible to everyone in the audience – all stakeholders, Indigenous communities, regulators, operators and disciplines.

Embracing Multidisciplinary Perspectives

Closure practitioners, and particularly closure integrators, come from all walks of life, with varied training, expertise, experience and exposure. This often allows them to be more open to different perspectives and opinions. They embrace the collaborative process of closure planning and the inherent uncertainty that comes with the involvement of multiple stakeholders. Closure integrators can be agile and flexible, open to an array of potential closure outcomes and able to deftly navigate changing local context. And if involved early enough, these closure integrators can see the long-term requirements of other business aspects, such as environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments. Their input and the integration of a holistic closure perspective can support ESG commitments beyond the operational life of an asset, such as those related to being nature positive and to biodiversity, post closure.

The Skills to Make a Difference

Integrators can lead a robust implementation of the closure planning process that is collaborative and open to different perspectives and closure solutions, maybe even some innovation!

They need to deeply understand the closure process and its elements, strategic planning skills and understanding of the closure landscape, locally, regionally and nationally, and internationally as applicable. And crucially, integrators need the less technical skills such as critical thinking, agility, empathy, active listening, collaboration, facilitation, communication skills, and, on occasion, courage in the form of the ability to lead fierce conversations, to give voice to the unpopular opinions and options.

Taking a holistic view, more options can be identified and assessed in the local environmental, social and business context of the site, making decisions more informed. With stakeholders being actively involved, enabled and understanding the process, decisions and reasoning, there is less uncertainty and fewer surprises closer to the time of closure.
 

Mine Closure Generalists vs Mine Closure Specialists

As the field of mine closure has evolved, numerous specialty areas have been instrumental in advancing our understanding, processes and closure methods. These specialists have laid a solid foundation by addressing the intricate details of mine closure, from environmental remediation to socio-economic considerations.

However, the role of the generalist, the mine closure integrators, is becoming increasingly important if we want to consistently push closure outcomes to the next level. These generalists are adept at synthesizing diverse specialist knowledge to see and realize the overarching objectives. Their role is becoming increasingly crucial as they orchestrate the various facets of mine closure into a coherent whole, ensuring that the sum of the parts leads to a greater collective success.

In essence, a combination of specialists and generalists will allow us to elevate the mine closure practice to new heights by fostering integration, innovation, and ultimately, more successful landscape scale outcomes.
 

About the Author: 

Kim Ferguson, Director of Mine Closure for WSP’s Global Mining Business, has over 25 years of experience in the field of mine closure, having led multi-disciplinary teams and projects across the world to successful outcomes.