Life after mining: New book spotlights global reclamation projects

The book is a sequel to the original, 101 Things to Do with a Hole in the Ground which was published in 2009, and 20% of the case studies in the new book are updates on projects in the first. It was published in the UK by the Eden Project, which is also its first eponymous case study.

In Cornwall, England, clay mining at one time “defined the region’s economy, and its open pits and waste tips shaped the landscape”. Its kaolin mines were chemically benign, so there wasn’t any waste to remediate, but there wasn’t any soil either.

The Eden project successfully turned the site of former clay mines into a thriving botanical garden housed by geodesic domes designed by Grimshaw Architects. The Rainforest Biome is now home to thousands of the world’s rainforest plants, fed by ultraviolet light.

Co-author Dr Peter Whitbread-Abruta is an IEMA Environmental Auditor in mining ESG and sustainability, mine closure and international development in developing and conflict-affected countries.

The inspiration to write the book, Whitbread-Abruta told MINING.com in an interview, struck during his time building the Eden project, which opened in 2001 as an environmental visitor attraction – and to celebrate the new millennium.

“The first book was very much focused on a collection of photographs and captions and I wanted to do something that told more of a story this time and we had a bigger budget and we could do a better job,” Whitbread-Abruta said.

Though co-sponsored by mining majors Rio Tinto, BHP, Anglo American and Newmont, Whitbread-Abruta emphasized the authors had editorial independence, as no-one involved wanted to be accused of greenwashing.

“I went into this with my eyes open,” he said. “I’ve worked all over the world on some pretty dodgy old mine sites in different parts of the world and so I know what a lot of the industry is like and I also know there’s some good stuff going on that needs to be talked about as well, and if you can inspire people – that can help drive change.”

“Rio Tinto got interested in what we’ve done from a mine closure perspective because it was quite unique and unusual thing to do with a hole in the ground in Cornwall,” he said. “We attracted one and a half million people in the first year and since we opened its attracted 25 million people and generated over £2 billion of value added to the local economy and created hundreds of jobs, so in terms of vehicle for socio-economic regeneration and environmental renewal its been a poster child.”

Whitbread-Abruta acknowledged the world has seen a succession of mining disasters over the years that have colored public’s perception of the mining industry.

“I wanted to do something that was beautiful, informative and accurate that would appeal to people who weren’t necessarily interested in mining and would appeal to mining communities as well as mining mine workers,” he said.

The Sudbury story

Whitbread-Abruta said of all the stories from around the world, his favorite is the Sudbury, Ontario story.

“What I like about the Sudbury story is it was utterly devastated for a century – all the land was denuded and the soil was toxic and the forest wouldn’t regrow, yet there was tens of thousands of people still living there working in the mining industry and having to live in that kind of environment,” he said.

The rejuvenation was a combination of improved government regulation, science-based solutions, finding out what the mechanisms were and fixing them with the local university and then community action working together and then more progressive thinking by some mining companies that worked in partnership in the 2000s and later as a significant environmental renewal story that has lessons that reverberate around the world.”

Whitbread-Abruta noted that many of the success stories and examples were not driven by mining companies.

“A lot of the creativity and innovation has come from outside of the company structure from local community members or ex regulators, or artists who’ve managed to get traction with a company or an abandoned mine landowner and done something really amazing and there’s definitely transferable lessons from the non-company examples to the company examples,” he said.

“People’s progressive thinking within mining companies where they’ve opened up and been transparent has led to better solutions overall.”

Pointing to the future, the co-author noted there are going to be a lot of coal mines closing across entire regions of China and North and South America.

“It will be on a much greater scale of closure and post mining regeneration,” he said.

“The purpose of this is to try and inspire better practice and the more progressive people in the mining industry will hopefully find it useful, but I don’t think it’s going to change the reputation of the industry overall unless the overall industry changes.”