Publication Name

MINING FOR CLOSURE

Similarly, within the immediately coming years

there is some urgency to establish a number of ac-

tivities to progress rehabilitation or risk ameliora-

tion at abandoned and orphaned mine sites. These

next steps can be read in the context of flagship pi-

lot remediation projects for learning.

Inventorise & prioritise

amongst abandoned and

orphaned sites in order to ensure the best use of

public and private funds. It is unavoidable that this

will require the building of detail inventories of

mining activities and mine related sites in National

jurisdictions. These will need to be filled with sa-

lient content such as complete details of current

ownership and activity status for identified sites;

assessment of the legal status of abandoned/or-

phaned mines; geographical detail such as relation-

ship to watershed boundaries; basic engineering

and infrastructural parameters and so forth.

Explore

the potential of partnerships (including

trans-national partnerships) for remediation of or-

phan and abandoned mining sites that focus on the

creation of future economic and social values in the

context of a healthy environment and involve both

the public and private sectors.

Test & experiment

with different forms of partner-

ship and innovative, flexible and forgiving frame-

works for indemnification against potential liabilities

in the first “case study site” rehabilitation projects.

In closing this report, a finding regarding the un-

derstanding of the process of risk reduction in the

South Eastern European context from the parallel

desk-assessment report is cited. This comment,

clearly calling for pilot projects, for a focus upon

data collection and capacity building needs, and

highlights the need for learning. These calls are

deemed as valid now in this document’s context as

they were there.

Pursuant to activities of the type listed above, it is

considered that pilot projects in risk reduction that

target specific sites in a number of countries have

the potential to provide significant tangible ben-

efit. While work towards the amelioration of risks

at individual sites is likely to yield environmental,

social, developmental and regional security ben-

efit, the prime benefit of any pilot activity should

sought in the area of learning for future work. For

example, the desk study indicates that better un-

derstanding in many areas is required. Examples

of such areas are:

the challenges facing transboundary working

groups (inter alia: cross border movement,

geographical jurisdiction, sharing and com-

patibility of data, accountability, funding of

activities, and so forth and so on);

the manner in which gaps in legislative

frameworks affect management of sites;

how lack of institutional capacity limit

progress with the management of trans-

boundary risks;

how general resource deficiencies (finance,

equipment, technical capacity and so forth)

place restraints on execution of works;

pathways for stakeholder consultation that

function best;

models for industry/community cooperation

that function best;

technical knowledge gaps that prove most

critical for success;

models for financing risk amelioration;

The scoping of any pilot projects within the region

should take place pursuant to activities focused

upon data collection and capacity building needs.

Proposals to undertake such projects, and the de-

termination of the specific objectives of any such

projects can only take place if the desire to under-

take such is expressed by representatives of the af-

fected countries.

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