Mining and Environmental specialists from SRK Consulting’s Almaty office joined over 450 other delegates from 23 countries in attending the internationally recognised Mine Closure 2015 Conference, Vancouver, Canada. Annual Mine Closure Conferences have been held around the world since the first conference was established in 2006, held in Perth, Australia and organised by the Australian Centre for Geomechanics and Centre for Land Rehabilitation of the University of Western Australia. This year the 10th International Conference on Mine Closure offered a multidisciplinary global forum for exchanging views and developing capacity in the science and engineering spheres, to ensure that new mines are designed with closure in mind, and old sites are closed economically, while minimizing environmental and societal impacts.
This was the second occasion that Mine Closure has been held in Canada, after a very successful conference in 2011 at Lake Louise that attracted almost 600 delegates. Following on that success, the conference organizers again partnered with the British Columbia Technical and Research Committee on Reclamation (TRCR). Mine Closure 2015 was held in conjunction with TRCR’s 39th Annual BC Mine Reclamation Symposium. The joint event offered delegates a stellar technical program featuring over 100 presentations on the latest scientific developments, as well as insightful discussions on the most pressing issues.
Daryl Hockley, an internationally recognised authority on mine closure designs and Principal Consultant with SRK Consulting’s Vancouver office was the keynote speaker, kicking off the conference with a presentation of: “Some histories of Mine Closure, The Idea”. In an innovative and highly discursive presentation, Daryl demonstrated how the issue of Mine Closure, and particularly the evolution of scientific approaches and research in the subject, has expanded over recent decades. He concluded with one of the few broad patterns that emerge: the range of considerations, implications and requirements related to mine closure continues to expand, with notable recent examples being the increased attention given to stakeholder input and the sustainability of mining-affected communities.
Other presentations made by SRK staff from around the world included “Successful in situ neutralization of a lake impacted by legacy uranium tailings in northern Saskatchewan” presented by Lee Christoffersen from the Vancouver office and Carl Williams and Matt Dey from the SRK office in the United Kingdom wrote “The rehabilitation of the Bicapa–Tarnaveni waste storage facility” which was presented at the conference by Soren Jensen from the same office.
After the conference, Tony Thornton, Managing Director of SRK Consulting (Kazakhstan) summed up his experience of attending the conference by commenting “From the presentations and discussions covered during this excellent conference, it is clear that the state of the art of Mine Closure is truly becoming a major focus for mining companies, their shareholders and communities affected by mining activity. And it is not only in the environment of the advanced regulatory jurisdictions of North America and Australia, but also developing countries in South America and Africa. It can only be a matter of time until these issues are equally significant to Central Asia and the countries of the former Soviet Union. To this end, SRK Consulting (Kazakhstan) is glad to have the international expertise of the SRK Group behind us, to be able to provide cutting edge technological innovation to clients in the Central Asia region who need mine closure solutions.”
SRK was a proud Silver Sponsor for the 10th International Conference on Mine Closure.
