Sustainable and responsible mining through sound mine closure

This paper provides an overview of planning requirements, including regulatory, and implementation approaches for achieving ecologically sound reclamation and restoration of mines upon closure in the USA. Mine closure includes mined-out areas, decommissioning of plants and structures, and appropriate monitoring of post-mining land, water, and air resources. Although the discussion provides general guidelines, each mine closure site presents unique challenges. The overall chemical composition of coal and associated strata with mineable coal seams, structural characteristics of the deposit, weather patterns, environmental conditions, processing and scale of mining of the deposit, and public and private infrastructure must be considered. Future land use and water resource requirements are also important considerations. The planning and closure activities must ensure that the resultant site has the appropriate post-mining land and water resources use, and the site does not pose any future environmental and health and safety risks. These requirements suggest that closure activities should be integrated with the mining activity planning process from the start. This paper discusses mine closure issues and describes several practices for a surface coal mine in the Western USA.