Once a mineral deposit is exhausted, mining companies have a responsibility to work towards land rehabilitation – the return of disturbed land to a stable and productive condition. For an older site this post-closure phase may even last longer than its operational life.
As a mining operation approaches the end of its life, there should be a clear plan for transitioning from operational to closure and decommissioning and, ultimately, post-closure. Properly done, such a transition is characterised by:
- engineering works to decommission and dismantle infrastructure, complete rehabilitation, grade landforms for effective drainage, cap and cover tailings facilities, implement post-closure monitoring networks
- administrative works relating to transferring assets, demobilising the labour force, relinquishing agreements, and other government and NGO agreements
- due diligence monitoring and reporting on the post-decommissioning status of environmental and social aspects of the site.
- new environmental risks (eg acid rock drainage or topsoil loss)
- changing land use practices
- changing climatic conditions beyond impact assessment assumptions
- new infrastructure affecting a mine’s footprint
- evolving community dynamics, including population and demographic changes.

Find out how mine rehabilitation legislation in Australia is changing in our FREE guide.
FAQ:
What are the stages of the mining life cycle?
There are five stages of the mining life cycle, these include: exploration, mine-site design and planning, construction, production, and closure and reclamation.
What is land rehabilitation?
Once a mineral deposit is exhausted, mining companies have a responsibility to work towards land rehabilitation – the return of disturbed land to a stable and productive condition.
- Speak to our team for a free demo of our mine rehabilitation tool DecipherGreen
- See how our solutions help manage environmental, standard and approval requirements for mine rehabilitation here