A review of landscape rehabilitation frameworks in ecosystem engineering for mine closure

Abstract

Mining causes changes to the environment and rehabilitation is necessary at mine closure. There is a lack of appropriate frameworks for mine site rehabilitation. In most cases, restoring the mine to previous conditions is challenging. Alternatively, mining companies can engineer ecosystems to suit new site conditions and aim for a self-sustaining and resilient ecosystem. In ecosystem design there should be consideration of the four key dimensions of any ecosystem; landscape, function, structure and composition (LFSC). Alcoa’s Bauxite mines and Barrick (Cowal) Limited’s Gold Mine have considered LFSC in their rehabilitation practices. From this, a framework based on LFSC is proposed as a means of planning, undertaking and monitoring mine rehabilitation, which together aim for a self-sustaining and resilient ecosystem. Elements of this framework are being utilised in the industry, and are supported by research. The framework could be used as an industry standard, utilised by regulatory bodies and potentially used in conjunction with other models and in other rehabilitation environments.