In the final episode of the third season of Getting Closure, host Mike O’Kane explores some of the less conventional options for putting a worked-out mine to good use. His guest is Peter Whitbread-Abrutat, co-author of 102 Things to Do With a Hole in the Ground and a leading proponent of progressive and sustainable mine closure.Illustrating his argument with examples from around the world, Peter makes the point that the solution to any mine-closure problem is probably already out there, somewhere — you just have to know where to look. Since 2014, Peter has been the director of Future Terrains, a team of reclamation specialists and landscape architects tasked with reclaiming degraded lands by enhancing environmental and social performance and promoting landscape restoration.Peter and Mike also talk about the lessons from the Eden Project, which, with Peter’s scientific guidance, turned what used to be a kaolin clay pit into the world’s largest indoor rainforest. ResourcesLandform Design InstituteFuture TerrainsThe Eden Project102 Things to Do With a Hole in the Ground
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45:51
RESTORING LIFE THROUGH MINE CLOSURE
Much of the work involved in mine closure and reclamation might seem to be invested in handling earth, water, and waste. But as guest Christine Daly tells host Mike O’Kane, reclamation is also about bridging the divide between engineering and biology and recognizing that successful mine closure can include “bringing something to life again.”
At least half of the LDI’s 12 principles of landform design specifically reinforce Christine’s dedication to restoring wildlife and vibrant natural lands, a passion that she buttresses with a commitment to the emerging development of co-reclamation or working cooperatively with Indigenous Peoples and local communities in achieving post-mining objectives.
Fittingly, Christine began her career in environmental sciences, which followed a childhood experiencing great wonder with the natural world. Mike and Christine also discuss elements of the Institute’s newly released guidance document on creating a design basis memorandum, a critical component of ensuring landform design and mine closure and reclamation follow a preconceived vision agreed upon by all stakeholders with an interest in the welfare of the land.
For further reading:
LDI DBM page: https://landformdesign.com/DBM
Christine Daly’s PhD thesis: https://prism.ucalgary.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/ea8d9293-6e30-4021-aa27-189450a7f5d5/content
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39:22
FINDING CHAMPIONS FOR RESPONSIBLE MINE CLOSURE
For those listeners well versed in the mandate of the LDI, many of the ideas expressed in the latest episode of Getting Closure will sound familiar. Guest Guy Boggs is the chief executive officer of the Cooperative Research Centre for Transformations in Mining Economies (CRC TIME) in Perth, Australia, an organization that — like the LDI — is dedicated to examining and helping transform what happens economically, socially, culturally, and environmentally after mining ends. Ideally, all for the better. In essence, Boggs’ centre is about “changing the way we think about the closure process.” It's more evidence of just how much the industry is evolving in sync with the LDI’s mission of making landform design routine in mining worldwide.
Among the CRC TIME’s core discoveries in its research on responsible closure planning is the need to identify a champion. As Boggs tells host Mike O’Kane, sometimes that champion can come from unexpected places, like a group of Italian scientists looking for a place to house an underground dark matter research laboratory.
Resources
Landform Design Institute
CRC TIME
Stawell Dark Matter lab
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51:15
BE READY TO PIVOT
In the fall of 2019, as the Landform Design Institute was starting up in Vancouver, Canada, Priscilla Nelson was organizing a likeminded organization in the United States. Launched in early 2020, The Tailings Center is an industry/university research and education collaboration between the Colorado School of Mines, Colorado State University, and the University of Arizona. The Center focuses on education, research, and outreach devoted to tailings and mine waste.
Host Mike O’Kane talks with Nelson — a professor at the Colorado School of Mines and one of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ “Geo-Legends” — about the state of female involvement in the engineering profession and the importance of being able to “pivot” throughout one’s career in pursuit of the many possible directions your ambitions might lead you. They also talk about the need to set “reasonable expectations” in the mining industry, why communicating clarity and creating trust are essential to successful mine closure, and the challenges of convincing the industry to recognize the value not only of immediate financial priorities but also the social and environmental considerations inherent to the industry’s work.
Resources
Landform Design Institute
The Tailings Center
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53:52
LANDFORM DESIGN PRINCIPLES 9–12
Host Mike O’Kane explores principles 9, 10, 11, and 12 with Institute Founder Gord McKenna, concluding the three-episode discussion of all 12 landform design principles.
The pair explain why it’s important to follow every drop of water through the landscape (Principle 9), reclaim a mine progressively (Principle 10), plan for sustainable closure (Principle 11), and share the lessons of both failure and success (Principle 12).
In emphasizing the importance of providing the best possible landform design advice to practitioners, Mike conjures one of the most famous quotes by Oscar Wilde: “I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.” The implication of the phrase is that wisdom finds its true value when shared with others, a practice Mike observes is a key objective in speaking with the learned guests who come on the “Getting Closure” podcast.
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