Regulating the social aspects of mine closure in three Australian states

The absence of legal criteria to support the responsible closure of large-scale mines is a significant global issue. Mine closure regulation primarily focuses on the physical aspects of mining, with limited attention paid to social aspects of mine closure. This paper examines the extent to which regulatory instruments across three major Australian mining jurisdictions–New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia–include provisions that require proponents to consider the social aspects of mine closure. We found that regulatory frameworks broadly cover social aspects, but often without explicit text in legislation or policy guidelines. We also found that regulators rely on front-end approval processes to account for and mitigate the social impacts of mining and that, following approval, regulators rely on stakeholder engagement, rather than also requiring evidence-based analysis and impact management. In the absence of restrictive regulatory elements in the latter stages of the project life cycle, we conclude that mining companies are relatively unhindered, free to enter into indefinite care and maintenance mode, or divest their assets. The current approach allows the costs of mine closure to sit ‘outside’ the life of mine planning processes.