Geotechnical News• December 2019
37
that manage seepage and erosion,
and can be easily reclaimed will be a
central task for each team. Landform
design teams, once assembled, are
charged with ensuring that reclaimed
landscapes contribute to sustainability
and biodiversity at multiple scales.
They will anticipate and remedi-
ate problems such as those posed by
acid-rock drainage, contamination
from tailings ponds, seismic activity,
invasive species, and extreme weather.
They will have to acquire a full under-
standing of the ecological parameters
of the site and the many and multi-
faceted influences of climate change.
Added to this tool kit is a neces-
sary appreciation for the culture and
philosophy of the local communities.
Stakeholders need the land returned
to them in a form they can use, for
agriculture, industrial and commer-
cial development, recreation, wildlife
habitat, or traditional activities. In
many cases, users of the land will be
Indigenous communities who can sup-
ply important historical and ecological
contexts. Their interests need to be
respected, not only by government
regulators, but by the technical experts
and administrators overseeing recla-
mation projects. In these areas, mines
will learn to build landscapes
with
Indigenous communities rather than
for
them.
The Institute is international in nature,
helping people work in all countries
around the world, in different regula-
tory regimes, in all the world’s climate
zones. It will rely on worldwide
experience of its members to forge a
robust, comprehensive process, using
new and best practices from every
corner.
Landform design from day one
Ensuring that all these activities are
managed efficiently, and that the costs
of meeting regulatory requirements
for reclamation are kept under control,
requires that landform design gets a
seat at the planning table from day
one. A system of effective adaptive
management, complete with perfor-
mance predictions, monitoring, and
pre-planned contingencies needs to be
established. In other words, designs
for dams, waste rock dumps, chan-
nels, and pits all must anticipate the
needs of closure, decommissioning,
and landform design before the first
ground is broken.
The need for landform designers is
only going to accelerate. According
to 2019 figures from the International
Organizing Committee for the World
Mining Congresses, in the past two
decades mining production rates have
nearly doubled to a global annual total
of more than 17 billion tonnes. Since
the turn of the century, production
is up almost 100% in Asia, 132% in
Australia, and 9% in North America.
Demand for rare earth metals and
other constituents of information-age
and renewable-energy technology is
rapidly growing.
Making mine reclamation a sustain-
able and responsible business cannot
be tackled by engineers alone. This
is an interdisciplinary and collabora-
tive project that will test the capacity
of both the mining industry and its
professional ranks to embrace change.
The Landform Design Institute seeks
to support design teams, the mines, the
local communities, and the regula-
tor in their quest to build sustainable
reclaimed landscapes, useful to all.
Interested in learning more? Visit the
website
)
and sign up for the mailing list.
Gord McKenna,
Founder
Landform Design Institute
5223 Laurel Drive
Delta, BC, V4K 4S4 Canada
604-838-6773
WASTE GEOTECHNICS
Landform designers need a seat at the table from the earliest planning stages of the mine itself.
