Livro EDM

48 The Legacy of Abandoned Mines
Mina do Vale da Abrutiga - Trabalhos de recuperação. (JB)
Vale da Abrutiga Mine - Rehabilitation works. (JB)
the implementation of best practices
in integrated mine closure planning,
and in dealing with the adverse
social and environmental legacy of
orphaned and abandoned mines. It
promotes a multi-stakeholder approach
in which risks, responsibilities
and opportunities are shared. It
optimizes engagement between mining
sector stakeholders, and builds a
network to transfer ideas, knowledge
and technology globally and to
deliver action locally. The actions on
these issues will require innovation
on a number of fronts:
– Inventive technological solutions –
both engineering and biological;
– Creative financial mechanisms
– to release funds from diverse
sources;
– New legal instruments – to overcome
the historical stumbling
blocks;
– Unconventional partnerships – involving
both the public and private
sectors, and harnessing players
who are not usually engaged in
post mining regeneration.
The underlying rationale of the initiative
is that mine closure planning
and the adverse impacts of mining
legacy should be addressed by a wider
community than mining companies
alone. While there is significant
activity in post-mining regeneration
being undertaken worldwide, there
is a clear need for co-ordination in
identifying, collating and disseminating
best practices, and further
integrating social, economic and environmental
factors.
Despite these concerns, the most recent
policy developments in the EU
focus more on prevention of major
accidents with the existing mines
and in avoiding their abandonment
at the end of their useful life, than on
the issue of rehabilitation of abandoned
mines, a matter which is only
approached independently in Directive
2006/21/EC, albeit generically.
The guidelines adopted at EU level
are limited to the following three
reference documents:
• Communication from the
European Commission COM
(2000) 664 on the “Safe Operation
of Mining Activities”
As a follow up of two accidents
(the cyanide spill into the river Tisza
from the dam burst at the Baia
Mare gold mine in Romania and
the Aznalcollar accident in Spain) a
Communication from the European
Commission COM (2000) 664
on the “Safe Operation of Mining
Activities” proposed the adoption
of an action plan setting out, as
priorities, an initiative to regulate
the construction of facilities and
the management of waste from
the extractive industries. The latter
included the preparation of a Reference
Document on Best Available
Techniques for Management
of Tailings and Waste-Rock in
Mining Activities (BAT Reference
Document) based on an exchange