mine closure planning
A new study has shown that bioleaching can strip more than 90% of sulphur and iron from coal waste, neutralising its acid-generating potential and creating a saleable by-product.
Australia’s mining sector could be overlooking a low-risk, high-reward tailings management method that’s been delivering stability and efficiency in other parts of the world for decades.
Seiche waves might be rare in mining, but new research shows they could pack enough force to overtop in-pit tailings storage facilities with serious consequences for operations, infrastructure, and safety.
A waste stream from iron ore processing is proving it can outperform conventional materials in building mine haul roads and deliver major environmental gains.
When a Queensland flood swallowed a dragline and left an underground portal 60 metres underwater, Wade Ludlow knew mine levee design had to change.
Approvals in mining have long been described as a maze of red tape and delays, but at AMEC’s Nature Positive and Environmental Regulation Forum in Perth, regulators signalled that change is finally starting to cut through.
What if the key to slashing tailings closure costs and winning community trust is to start the work decades before the mine shuts down?
For Justin Walls, Principal Consultant (Tailings Engineering) at SRK Consulting, the best time to plan for tailings storage facility (TSF) closure is now – not when the mine is about to shut down.
When John Stacpoole, inspector of mines at the NSW Resources Regulator, took the stage at the Life of Mine | Mine Waste and Tailings 2025 Conference in Brisbane, he didn’t waste time on pleasantries.
When most miners think about tailings, they think about storage, risk management, and rehabilitation, but at the Life of Mine | Mine Waste and Tailings Conference 2025 in Brisbane, Clem Cahill, technical director - tailings at GHD, showed how the Kara Mine flipped that thinking on its head - turning its own waste stream into a high-performance construction material.
In one of Australia’s wettest mining regions, a carefully engineered soil cover has proven it can keep both water and oxygen out of acid-forming waste rock - even under two metres of rain a year.
