Closure planning

Our approach includes planning for both land rehabilitation and socio-economic transition as early as possible. Where feasible, we conduct progressive rehabilitation on previously disturbed areas once active operations have completed.

Our industrial assets consult with key stakeholders and local communities and endeavour to reach a common approach and understanding on the development of their closure plans and monitor the societal risks and opportunities associated with closure.

Closure planning enables the safe and responsible closure of industrial assets that have reached the end of operational life. Through our Closure Planning Standard,  we require our industrial assets to have a closure plan that could be initiated at any time for a planned, unplanned or temporary closure, and to consult with  local communities on the development of their closure plans. Our industrial assets develop closure plans, including progressive rehabilitation programmes where possible and commercially feasible,  to incrementally restore the land over the  life of an industrial asset.

Our industrial assets develop and maintain closure plans that follow good practice, such as the ICMM’s Integrated Mine Closure Good Practice Guide. Industrial assets develop their closure plans in consultation with local communities, to consider their needs and identify opportunities to contribute to socio-economic resilience, and in accordance with regulatory requirements. Industrial assets also monitor the societal risks and opportunities associated with closure. 

We develop financial estimates for closure planning, with financial assurance typically provided to government agencies prior to development or expansion. Our industrial assets are required to regularly review their closure plans to ensure they remain fit for purpose and align with the industrial asset’s life cycle.

Industrial asset closure planning requirements vary depending on each asset's life cycle stage, existing processes, scale, age and complexity. We have adopted the ICMM Closure Maturity Framework to measure closure maturity. We require our industrial assets to be working towards meeting international good practice closure maturity requirements for each of the ICMM’s 14 closure maturity elements. Our industrial assets undertake a self-assessment against the ICMM Closure Maturity Framework to determine their level of closure planning maturity against a desired level of maturity. 

Over the next five years, we will focus on reaching the desired closure maturity levels at industrial sites nearing closure, prioritising those sites with the earliest closure dates. Our industrial assets will also implement our Project Management Standard, which sets requirements for how we manage major projects and which forms part of our closure maturity requirements.

We support our industrial assets’ efforts to achieve the necessary closure planning implementation, considerations and methodology, as outlined in our Closure Planning Guideline.

We monitor our performance to drive improvement, and we investigate incidents during closure to prevent repeats. Our assurance processes are designed to  support the principles of adaptive management and align with the ICMM Performance Expectations.

To support progressive rehabilitation, if land becomes available our industrial assets may undertake various actions in earlier lifecycle stages, such as the excavation and preservation of topsoil and overburden from areas designated for operations, prior to development.