Worldwide, growing regulatory obligations, financial securities, and community and cultural expectations have driven increasing expectation for industry to achieve mine closure and relinquishment. This includes increasing certainty and efficacy throughout the process and involves collaboration and consultation with numerous stakeholders. The shift has seen substantial advances in the corporate intent, scientific knowledge, and technological ability to decommission, stabilise and rehabilitate a mine site.
The development of acceptable and achievable completion criteria is a necessary part of mine closure planning and fundamental to the successful transition of mined land to a future use. Once achieved, completion criteria demonstrate that financial assurances and liabilities can be removed. Because of this important function, it is imperative that completion criteria are effectively formulated to capture closure goals, are accepted by all stakeholders and agreed by regulators and the proponent, are achievable, and can demonstrate this achievement through transparent and appropriate monitoring and documentation (Young et al., 2019).