Associated Event

Mine Closure 2022
4-6 October 2022 | Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Collaborative Mine Closure Planning Workshop

3 October 2022 | 0900-1630 | Lockyer Room, Hilton Brisbane, Queensland

Event will be held in person only.

About the workshop

The first step in developing any mine closure plan is to secure alignment on closure vision, including returning land use and closure objectives and assess potential closure strategies that agree with those objectives. A mine site’s closure vision provides a high-level aspirational description of what a mine site and impacted stakeholders want to achieve through implementation of the closure plan¹.

Closure activities often involve many stakeholders from different disciplines, and the successful implementation of a closure plan is dependent on clear alignment on closure objectives and open collaboration between the teams. This then allows for agreement on acceptable level of residual risk to achieve the closure vision and returning land use.

Join Okane Consultants for a facilitated closure planning workshop where attendees will work through a closure planning case study. Attendees will learn about how to develop a collaborative closure vision for a site, select site-specific closure objectives, and complete a preliminary alternatives assessment.

Who should attend

Environmental mangers, reclamation superintendents, operations coordinators, mine planners, permitting and compliance managers, regulatory/ project assessment leads would greatly benefit from attending this workshop.

Some experience with mine closure practice is recommended, but a technical degree is not required.

Workshop facilitator

Program*
8:30-9:00	Registration
9:00-9:45	Introductions and Site Overview
9:45-10:30	Breakout Stakeholder Discussion Groups- Closure Objectives
10:30-10:45	Break
10:45- 11:30	Closure Vision and Objectives
11:30-12:30	Breakout Project Planning Discussion Groups – Returning Land Use Alternatives
12:30-13:15	Lunch
13:15-14:00	Review of the Options and Alternatives Assessment Tool
14:00- 14:45	Breakout Project Planning Discussion Group – Alternatives Assessment
14:45-15:00	Break
15:00-16:00	Risk assessment tools and choosing the “Best Closure Options”
16:00-16:30	Questions and workshop close out

*Program is subject to change. Check this web page for updates.

Agenda

Workshop participates will be presented with a hypothetical mine site. The site will currently be in operation with an anticipated closure date in the next 3-5 years.

The hypothetical site will contain typical mine landforms like waste/ mined rock stockpiles, tailings storage facilities, pit, and underground workings. A simplified set of fact sheets and workbook will be provided as pre-read to align the participates on the current state of the mine. Each participate will also be assigned a stakeholder role to play for the workshop and be provided an associated biography outlining that character’s objectives for the closure plan. Stakeholder roles could include mine planning, environmental management, health and safety, member of local community/ impacted stakeholder, and regional economic planner.

Attendees will be coached through a collaborative closure vision and alternatives assessment process.

Workshop presenters

Miriam Clark
VP Global Strategy & Business Growth
Okane Consultants

Miriam is a professional engineer with 15 years of experience in energy infrastructure and mining projects. As Okane’s VP Global Strategy & Business Growth, she leads strategic pursuits including new market development and corporate partnerships, with a core focus on fostering strong client and stakeholder relationships. Miriam is an experienced project manager, with expertise in contract set up and engineering management. She has managed major infrastructure projects from early phase feasibility studies, through detailed engineering, stakeholder engagement, regulatory application, final investment decision and construction. She has an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Calgary, and a master’s degree in Business Administration from Queen’s University and Cornell University. Miriam sits on the Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee for the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum, is a founding member of the Calgary chapter for Women in Mining Canada and is a volunteer Director with Connecting Environmental Professionals Calgary.

Mike O’Kane
Senior Technical Advisor
Okane Consultants

Mike founded Okane Consultants in 1996 and continues to work with Okane Consultants as a senior technical advisor, using his wide-ranging technical expertise and knowledge on risk management best practices as tools for development and communication of project objectives and designs. He applies a life of asset value framework that incorporates evaluation for optimising the ‘best’ next land use with an acceptable level of residual risk while maximising incremental net present value and achieving progressive environmental, social and governance outcomes.

Mike provides independent peer review to mine operators and owners, as well as state, territorial, provincial, and federal government agencies, and is a member of a number of closure planning and/or technical advisory panels. Mike is the lead author on numerous documents pertaining to cover system and landform design, implementation, and performance monitoring. Mike provides landform and cover system design workshops/short courses at leading mine waste management conferences around the world.

Mike is a director of the Landform Design Institute, and Chair of its Technical Advisory Panel. In 2014, Mike received the University of Saskatchewan Alumni Achievement Award in 2014 for ‘Global Development of his Business and Corporation, and Philanthropy’.

Registration

If you have already registered or the conference and wish to add this workshop to your registration, click here.

¹ICMM Integrated Mine Closure Good Practice Guide, 2nd Edition https://www.icmm.com/en-gb/guidance/environmental-stewardship/integrated-mine-closure-2019