Being a finite abstraction, “sustainable mining” is something of an oxymoron for what is inherently unsustainable activity. Nevertheless, in an era of increasing recognition of environmental and social damage through an ever-growing scale of mining coupled with increasing corporate social conscience for these activities, the mining industry usually works to reduce operational risk and retain its “social licence to mine” the community resource through a variety of strategies.

Conceptual beneficial end uses for pit lakes that have already been explored in Australia.

AMD in the Czech Republic; mine pit lakes and their waters are usually considered a liability.

For best sustainable management of lease resources for companies, communities and the environment, pit lake management should be more than simply parochial meeting of regulatory criteria to lease relinquishment. Assessing current and potential end uses for pit lakes is an important, yet little-recognised way, in which significant benefits to all three of these stakeholder groups can be made over an indefinite long-period of time, and in a mutually beneficial fashion.

Output(s):

McCullough, C. D. & Lund, M. A. (2006). Opportunities for sustainable mining pit lakes in Australia. Mine Water and the Environment. 25(4): 220-226.

Development of Pit Lake Beneficial End Uses

Research team: Clint McCullough (MiWER), Douglas Hunt (CUT), Louis Evans (CUT)

Social licence to mine is encouraging much greater emphasis on sustainability and contribution to the local community of a post-mining landscape than ever before. Development of a pit lake resource into a beneficial end use depends upon input from the mining company involved, the local community and also relevant regulatory agencies. Planning must ideally occur before the first hole is dug, and from then on it should be regularly updated as economic and social climates change.

Wedge Pit lake in the Goldfields Region provides water for the nearby town of Laverton.

Mine pit lakes relinquishment needs to be considered before beginning and during operational mine life.

The most successful pit lake beneficial end uses have arisen when mining companies have engaged the desire and expectations of local communities in a supportive regularly environment to go beyond compliance; instead to leave a very positive mining legacy behind that they can be proud of.

Output(s):

McCullough, C. D.; Hunt, D. & Evans, L. H. (in press). Social, Economic, and Ecological End Uses – Incentives, regulatory requirements and planning required to develop successful beneficial end uses. In, Workbook of Technologies for the Management of Metal Mine and Metallurgical Process Drainage, Castendyk, D.; Eary, T. & Park, B. (eds.) Society for Mining Engineering (SME), Kentucky, USA.

Mine Pit Lakes in Australia; a Regional Perspective

Research team: Naresh Radhakrisnan (MiWER), Clint McCullough (MiWER), Mark Lund (MiWER)

What are the characteristics of Australian pit lakes and how do compare to those of other countries?

The MiWER team have been invited to contribute a book chapter on “Mining lakes in Australia” to an upcoming publication. The title of the book, published by Springer, is “Acidic Pit Lakes - legacies of coal and ore mining”. The proposed book will be a revised version of the now 10 year-old well-recognised publication by the same publishers. The chapter will highlight knowledge of mine pit lakes in Australia. Main topics planned to be covered in the chapter are the total number of mine lakes, type of mining, physical, chemical and some biological characteristics, any remediation and rehabilitation approaches planned or already carried out, remediation drivers and the socio-economic aspects of the mine lakes etc.

Australia has many highly acidic and also highly saline lakes as a result of its arid climate.

With mining booming in Australia, mine pits are forming larger lakes than ever before.

We hope that this chapter, to be published in 2009, will serve as a useful tool for industry, regulators and researchers alike.

Output(s):

Naresh Kumar, R., McCullough, C.D. and Lund, M.A. (in prep). Mining lakes in Australia. In: “Acidic Pit Lakes - Legacies of Coal and Ore Mining”. Edited by Walter Geller and Martin Schultze. Springer Publishers.

Opportunities for Sustainable Mining by Beneficial Pit Lake End Uses

Development of Pit Lake Beneficial End Uses

Mine Pit Lakes in Australia; a Regional Perspective