Geotechnical News • December 2019
35
WASTE GEOTECHNICS
New Institute launched to make mine reclamation
sustainable and responsible
Gord McKenna
By its nature, mining drastically
disturbs the land. While progressive
reclamation is common at almost all
mines, the environmental legacy of
natural resource extraction continues
to pose political, social, and legal
challenges, and the current state of
practice seldom results in full reclama-
tion after closure. In recent decades,
the need for mine owners and society
to improve how they work together
to ensure mine lands are made safe
and useful has become increasingly
apparent.
Helping practitioners build sustainable
mining landscapes is the objective of
the new non-profit Landform Design
Institute, which was introduced in
September to a receptive audience
of reclamation specialists at the 42
nd
British Columbia Mine Reclamation
Symposium in Kimberley, BC.
What is landform design?
Landform design is an emerging
process used to successfully recon-
struct mine land. It allows industry,
regulators, and communities to work
together to manage costs and risks,
minimize liability, and produce
progressively reclaimed landscapes
with confidence and pride. Land-
form design embraces conventional
reclamation but is broadly focused. It
starts before mining begins in order to
provide design, construction support,
and stewardship throughout the life of
the mine and beyond.
Landform design operates at the
element, landform, landscape (mine
site), and regional scales. Typical
mining landforms include waste-rock
dumps, mined-out pits, tailings stor-
age facilities, and the surface-water
drainage system. Design teams include
planners, engineers, geologists,
hydrologists, geochemists, keepers of
traditional knowledge, ecologists, and
operations and reclamation specialists.
They start with a design-basis memo-
randum that sets out agreed upon
goals, objectives, and design criteria
for each landform and landscape.
This living contract evolves over the
decades between the initial vision and
final signoff.
Why an Institute?
The Institute’s goal is to make land-
form design common in the mining
industry by 2030. It’s dedicated to
creating and supporting a community
of landform design practitioners. It
will help teams design and build truly
sustainable reclaimed lands by provid-
ing the practical “how to” of landform
Landform design operates at the element, landform, landscape (mine site) and regional scales.
