Closure
Mine closure is one of the most complex tasks a mining company must undertake. It is also one of the most important.
When done well, with early planning and holistic thinking, mine closure can deliver lasting, positive and sustainable legacies for local communities, the economy and wider country. At Barrick, we don’t think of closure as the end point of a mine’s life but rather as the transition to the next phase of the land and surrounding area’s life.
Unfortunately, the mining industry has a legacy of poor closure and lasting liabilities, including examples of environmental and social damage, unproductive land, environmental degradation, a culture of dependency, development gaps in the community and financial liabilities. Throughout the industry, there are very few examples of well executed mine closure. At Barrick, we plan to change this.
It may sound counter intuitive but when planning a new mine, we are already thinking and evaluating how we will eventually close it. How we manage the environmental and social aspects of closure is set out in our Mine Closure Standard, which is designed to ensure that construction and operating teams consider the consequences of the decisions they make now with the future of the mine, the environment and the community in mind. Our closure plans are living documents and designed to develop over time, and respond to changes in an agile manner while considering long-term principles. Closure alternatives assessments are completed regularly and evaluated on the basis of long-term environmental and social performance to ensure the best possible outcomes are achieved.
For example, we generally don’t regard ‘Active long- term water treatment’ as an acceptable closure strategy due to the extensive ongoing resource consumption, management requirements, and liabilities incurred by water treatment plants post closure. So instead of relying on water treatment plants that will consume energy and resources long into the future, we work to find cost-effective and nature-based solutions to prevent negative impacts on water quality where possible and to use sustainable, low-impact mitigation technologies or solutions which are site and region-specific. We also rely on input and collaboration with local stakeholders who inherently have a vested interest in long-term goals of formerly mined lands.
A Focus on Social
All our closure plans identify steps to be taken throughout the mine’s life to deliver safe and sustainable closure both from an environmental and social perspective.
Our objective with closure is to maximize the value distributed to the community not just through the operational life of the mine but throughout closure. For example, the region of the DRC where our Kibali mine is located is not serviced by the Congolese national grid. To supply Kibali with the electricity needed to run the mine efficiently, we have constructed three hydropower stations. The construction of these stations not only makes operational and environmental sense for Kibali, it also brings social benefits. Nearby communities benefit from a portion of the electricity generated now and, when Kibali eventually closes, the stations will be handed over to the Congolese government to own and operate, thereby helping light up an otherwise dark corner of the DRC.
Buzwagi’s Special Treatment
Our Buzwagi mine was an economic powerhouse for Tanzania’s Shinyanga region for nearly 15 years.
So when the mine moved into closure in July 2021, the local community and Tanzanian government were naturally worried about what would happen to the region and its employees once the mine closed.
Fortunately for the people of Shinyanga and Tanzania, we had a plan to transform Buzwagi’s footprint into an economic hub for the region and establish a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) to attract further investment into the region. The plan for this transformation began in earnest during 2021 when a feasibility study was commissioned which showed that the creation of a special economic zone had the potential to replace Buzwagi as the region’s economic driver, and could:
- Create more than 3,000 jobs annually.
- Generate in excess of $150,000 each year from service levies for the local municipality.
- Deliver more than $4.5 million in employment taxes each year.
Since 2022, we have been busy attending to the physical closure of the mine, which has involved:
- Rehabilitation work across more than 300 hectares of disturbed land and planting more than 600,000 trees.
- Capping of the TSF and Run of Mine (RoM) pad rehabilitation.
We have also made good progress on the Buzwagi Special Economic Zone and social investment in the communities. At the end of 2023, the two SEZ investors had mobilized to the site, with one producing from the established factory in the Buzwagi SEZ and supplying conveyor belt rollers to our Tanzanian mines, while also exporting to the DRC (Kibali) and Zambia (Lumwana). Other investors continue to mobilize: a grinding media company is expected to start construction in May 2024 and production in November 2024, with a view to serving the Tanzanian industry and beyond.
Other facilities handed over in 2023 include:
- Two agricultural resource centers: Mondo and Mwendakulima.
- A range of apiary and poultry projects.
- The terminal at Kahama Airport to improve access and make the region a real hub for investment.
Further to this, construction of a $1.28 million irrigation scheme and a $1.36 million water supply project are in progress. These are set to be completed and handed over in 2024.