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Sustainability
as you found it Leave the earth
Cleaning up Australia’s 80,000 disused mines is a huge job – but the payoffs can outweigh the costs. Mohan Yellishetty, co-founder of Critical Minerals Consortium and associate professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University, and Peter Marcus Bach, senior research scientist, Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences and adjunct research fellow, Monash University, explore the various ways reclaiming abandoned mines can offer environmental, social and economic benefi ts.
N
ewly announced closures of Glencore’s copper and zinc mines in Mount Isa will add to a huge number of former mines in Australia. A 2020
study by Monash University’s Resources Trinity Group found more than 80,000 inactive mine sites across the country. Globally, a 2023 study estimates the mining footprint at around 66,000km2
. Abandoned mines
account for much of this area. It’s estimated the US has about 500,000 abandoned mines and Canada at least 10,000. The UK and China have at least 1,500 and 12,000 old coalmines, respectively. Abandoned mines
Environmental benefits
Carbon farming: Mine leases generally lock up vast land areas. This land presents a commercially viable, yet neglected, opportunity for carbon
can pose extreme environmental, health and safety risks. Unreclaimed coalmines, for example, continue to emit greenhouse gases. Land is a scarce resource. Restoration enables sustainable and dynamic use of former mining land. It opens up golden opportunities – environmental, social and economic.
World Mining Frontiers /
www.nsenergybusiness.com
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