Mine Closure

Mining is basically an intermediate use of land and it causes various impacts on all the components of environment. In most situations the impacts on land are severe and may cause the land to become useless for any economic use after mining. Since, the mining companies take land areas which have been in various uses before the onset of mining activities it should have been obligatory for the companies to develop the land areas for uses most suitable for the economic activities after mining. Though this was known right from the inception of the mining activities the efforts towards developing the land after mining were negligible. This has resulted in devastation of mined out land in many locations in the country. Keeping in view the importance and the necessity of development of land areas legislation have been formulated for mine closure. The legislation are recent not many mines have been closed in accordance with the provisions therein. A lot of work is still required to be done to make mine closure really effective. All over the world the importance of the mine closure is being realized due mainly to the following reasons. Closure planning at all the stages in a mine's life is important to the economics of a mine and such a planning results in a large cost savings. In this book the following aspects of mine closure planning and implementation in the opencast and underground mines, with special reference to the mining situations in the India, have been outlined. 1. Impacts of mining on environmental components and their roles in mine closure planning; 2. Legal, social and economic necessity of mine closure; 3. Land use planning as a tool for mine closure planning and implementation; 4. How to incorporate mine closure in mine planning; 5. Mine closure planning in underground and opencast mines; 6. Implications of mine fires in mine closure; 7. Mine closure planning for small mines; 8. Taking care of the abandoned mines, i.e., closure of abandoned mines; 9. Economics of mine closure; 10. Management of ecology during mine closure. The book is expected to be useful to the practical mining engineers and environmen- talists in mine planning and design. It should also be useful to the researchers and students of mining and environment.