What strategies reduce risk and cost while supporting sustainable mine closure?

We look at mine lifecycle strategies through four interconnected pillars. These go beyond meeting regulations to create lasting benefits for communities, the environment and business outcomes. The four pillars of a mine lifecycle strategy include:

1. Considerations for mine closure: integrating early, risk-based planning, multidisciplinary delivery and financial rigour so estimates remain credible over time
2. Asset transition: turning liabilities into long-term assets by aligning technical feasibility with community priorities and sustainable funding models
3. Social closure and impact: co-creating outcomes with Indigenous and local communities and treating social performance as a core design input
4. Permitting for new projects: using impact assessment iteratively, aligning with rightsholders from the outset and demonstrating closure readiness within permitting narratives
   

Adopting a proactive approach to the mine lifecycle strategy allows for ongoing rehabilitation during operations, making final closure easier and spreading costs out over the life of the mine.

Our approach for sustainable mine closure includes:

• Designing facilities for easier decommissioning
• Segregating hazardous materials to simplify remediation
• Incorporating water and tailings management strategies that support closure objectives
• Identifying potential key closure activities at the design stage so they can be considered throughout the operations period of the mine
• Preparing closure plans at the design stage so an initial provision for closure can be established and provide the basis for all future closure plan updates
• Understanding the end land use through engagement with rightsholders and stakeholders to incorporate considerations into the design

This approach combines lessons we’ve learned from legacy sites and the growing expectations of regulators, communities and investors. The result helps deliver mines that are safer, more cost-effective to close and aligned with rightsholders, regulatory and community expectations.

Evolve Power repurposed the Tent Mountain coal mine in Alberta, Canada into a renewable energy complex that showed what early planning and collaboration can achieve.

Through our technical, commercial and strategic guidance, Evolve Power was able to:

• Convert a former coal mine into a renewable energy hub
• Produce hydrogen with 95 percent lower carbon intensity than typical Alberta hydrogen
• Use existing mine pits and topography for pumped hydro storage
• Support Alberta’s decarbonisation goals
• Deliver long-term economic and industrial benefits for the region

The project earned global recognition as Energy Project of the Year at the 2025 Sustainability Delivery Awards, setting a benchmark for future-ready infrastructure and clean energy.