New research on mine closures in South Africa has shown that there remains a lack of integration of social development, which continues to pose a risk to long-term regional development beyond mining activity.

There also continues to be uncertainty on the continuity of projects when assets are bought by another company, which often happens when mines near their end of life.

“There are 230 operating mines spread across the country, variously located in diverse natural environments near cities, townships and rural villages. Many community members living nearby are dependent on mining for jobs and local businesses. These communities will be significantly affected by mine closures,” University of Cape Town (UCT) research fellow Dr Megan Cole said, presenting her findings in a webinar hosted by the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy on November 22.

The three-year research project on national mine closure risks and opportunities has been undertaken by UCT and funded by the Water Research Commission. The research project started in April 2021 and is expected to be completed by March next year.

Cole’s research is made up of four main components. The first is to describe case studies of post-closure land use and highlight some of the best practices happening in the country. The second component was the development of a mine closure risk rating system.

Thirdly, the research team will be publishing a mine closure risk and opportunity atlas, which is an online geographic information system (GIS) tool.

Lastly, the fourth component is proposing a new post-closure opportunity framework.

The webinar looked at a new national mine closure risk rating system and post-closure land-use opportunity framework for South Africa, supported by a South African mine closure risk and opportunity atlas developed in software platform ArcGIS. Risk ratings have been calculated for the likelihood of closure, social impact, and environmental impact for all mines in the country based on more than 20 national datasets.

The post-closure land-use opportunity framework incorporates community values and stakeholder engagement, identifying all possible land-use alternatives, and a screening process based on numerous environmental, social, economic, and technical influencing factors and measurable indicators. While it has been developed for South Africa, the concept and design and insights have been aimed at being able to be applied to any mining country in the world.

“Mine closure is an inevitable part of mining. It occurs when the resource is depleted or when it’s no longer economically viable. At a minimum, it involves rehabilitation and decommissioning of associated facilities and infrastructure. But current best practice asks for a lot more than that,” Cole said.

She explained that mine closure now required that planning start at the onset of mining with a conceptual plan during exploration, and then increasing detail over the life of the mine. It was also meant to integrate social, environmental and economic considerations and incorporate a wide number of stakeholders in the process.

“What we’ve seen is that deferred mine closure planning results in unmanaged impacts and liabilities, which often leads to operations being placed on care and maintenance,” she said.