Knowledge pertaining to mined rock stockpile (MRS) construction, material placement and material characterisation has improved over the past twenty years. Previous knowledge gaps and less stringent regulatory frameworks resulted in some poorly constructed, managed and rehabilitated MRSs with legacy issues such as acid and metalliferous drainage (AMD), gas release, internal heating, surface erosion and combustion of mined rock. If not properly managed, these can cause increased public health and environmental risks to local and downstream receptors. Therefore, operations that hold historical MRSs of social and environmental concern are motivated to improve their mined rock placement strategies, MRS construction and management measures to lower their risk and increase their social licence to operate.
Here we focus on store and release (S&R) covers systems as a management measure for legacy and new MRSs containing AMD generating material. The analysis focuses on seventeen years of monitoring data from a cover system trial atop a potentially reactive MRS, and subsequent learnings over a twenty-year period with an emphasis on the hydrological cover system regime.