Can mine closure create opportunities?

The closure and abandonment of mining areas is rarely caused by complete consumption or extraction of a resource but rather is typically associated with diminishing financial returns based on metal values, or social, political, and environmental restrictions that lead to an uneconomic scenario for a resource unit. Each mine site requires a site-specific evaluation to determine the potential for recovering metals and to identify suitable technologies.

SRK has been involved in developing new technologies, the transfer of existing technologies to new applications, and in assessing abandoned or closing mines and mine waste at existing operations with the challenge of recovering value. These projects are typically multidisciplined and often are developed to fit in the scope and operations of existing mining or closure activities. Successfully developing them has a number of benefits: removing or isolating potential pollutants from waste, recovering value that otherwise would be lost, generating revenue, and/or off-setting closure and reclamation costs. Each operation is unique and requires a unique approach.

Download 27 pages of case studies and informative articles