1087 While governments in Australia, and in many other jurisdictions, have undertaken significant reforms to modernize financial provisioning and assurance frameworks, strengthen closure requirements and introduce higher rehabilitation standards, there is opportunity to consider different models for connecting mine closure and PMLU, with a focus on value generation in addition to risk management. 4. ENABLING MINING CORE BUSINESS TO FACILITATE APPROPRIATE LAND STEWARDSHIP BEYOND THE COMPLETION OF MINING During the life of mine, companies are responsible for managing both operational and other areas of land under mining lease. If companies can be persuaded to consider mine waste, novel landforms and constructed assets as resources, opportunities can be developed to incentivize a transfer of relevant ‘knowhow’ in reprocessing waste for new purposes or repurposing mine land or infrastructure. This is particularly relevant for critical minerals, which are often co-located with legacy waste and by-products from historical mine sites, offering an opportunity to recover valuable resources. Energy storage and production systems likewise are being designed to capitalize on the unique attributes of mine shafts and pits. This needs to balance research and development with commercialization, as much of the science, processing and other technologies required to re-process at commercial scale do not currently exist. Inclusion of post mine land, waste and asset use innovation partnerships can provide opportunities for companies to build confidence in alternative use pathways and attract partnerships with governments and third parties that incentivize relinquishment and asset transfer. Nature likewise is increasing being considered as an asset, with nature positive commitments made by the sector (i.e. ICMM Position Statement on Nature) and progression towards nature integration in financial systems is emerging. Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) is a systematic approach to measuring and valuing the stocks and flows of natural resources and ecosystem services within a given area. Our research has demonstrated that while NCA in the mining sector is starting to be used with a disclosure focus, there is also potential to use the data collected for the purpose of disclosure to make decisions that create future value for the organization. (Maybee et al. (2023a)). This can take the form of such activities as forecasting outcomes and performing variance analyses against those forecasts. Under the right settings, this could provide a mechanism for evaluating alternative use decisions in relation to rehabilitation commitments both at a site and regional scale. Land stewardship models that utilize partnerships with future managers of the land, including Indigenous communities, could be a key mechanism for ensuring stewardship beyond the completion of mining. While progressive companies in the sector may be committed to enabling mine closure and positive post mine legacy outcomes, the challenge for leadership is demonstrating the return on investment from specific actions and investments made early and at particular points over the life of mine. For example, discount rate selection using industry standard approaches can be problematic. To address this issue our research has investigated the use of utility transformations to support an alternative framework for assessing time, risk and value that considers, quantifies and normalizes the perspectives of a diverse closure and post mine transition stakeholders. Replacing standard objective functions with transformed datasets in this way may provide a mechanism that integrates with a multi-criteria optimization framework to: • Address mine production scheduling by integrating both multi-criteria and multistakeholder perspectives • Formulate and solve multi-objective optimization models • Recommend a mining schedule that can meet the expectations of all stakeholders through an evaluation model Currently, there is a lack of consistency in the application of traditional capital studies approaches in closure and post mine transition planning across the sector. Also, there is opportunity to better understand their limitations and evaluate the different strategic approaches corporate leaders may take in response to these studies across the life of asset to optimize accrued value and manage liability. The CRC TiME 20252027 strategic plan has identified this as a priority and we will be delivering research to inform guidance for the sector.
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