Walter Weinig to present SME webinar on mine closure

Walter Weinig, a senior hydrogeologist based in M&A’s Denver office, will be presenting a webinar on Thursday, July 2, 2015, at 2:00 pm MST for the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration (SME). The topic of the webinar will be “Acceptable, Achievable, Sustainable? Assessing Post-Closure Goals at Legacy Mine Sites.”

Abstract

Closure is now included in the early stages of mine planning and development. Operators can adjust to create sustainable systems that achieve pre-defined closure goals. Legacy mine sites include abandoned, inactive, and operating facilities that were constructed before the advent of modern closure planning. Several examples illustrate the difficulty of defining appropriate closure goals for legacy sites. At an abandoned underground mine, water quality is impacted by a spring discharging from the workings. An active water treatment system will likely be operated by a county agency in perpetuity.

Active closure elements can be less sustainable than passive systems, but were thought to be more protective. Groundwater is impacted in an historic copper-mining district. Setting closure goals for water quality in this area is complicated by pre-existing impacts and overlapping regulatory programs. Other examples include a semi passive treatment system at a remote, abandoned mine and defining background conditions for re-opening an historic mine. These case studies illustrate the difficulty of setting acceptable, achievable, and sustainable closure goals at legacy mine sites.

About the Speaker

Walter is a Registered Member of SME and a licensed professional geologist. For over 25 years, he has worked on water-related projects for mining sites, ranging from baseline studies through operations, closure, reclamation, and remediation. Setting acceptable, achievable, and sustainable closure goals for mines that came into operation — and sometimes ceased operation — well before the advent of modern closure planning can be a particular challenge. Walter will share some of his experience setting realistic closure goals for these legacy sites.

To Register

Register online at https://smenet.webex.com.