Post-closure planning for Ranger uranium mine

The Ranger Uranium Mine is due for closure by 2021. The nature of potential long-term environmental impacts following closure indicates that a well-defined strategy is required if long-term stewardship is to be successful. A key consideration of this strategy is the inclusion of cultural and traditional ecological knowledge into closure plans in a manner that will allow Aboriginal landowners to assist with post-closure land management activities and regain their connectivity with the mined out land. This paper seeks to summarise our earlier work on combining traditional and western scientific knowledge systems and demonstrate how they can be developed into plans for long-term stewardship, not only at Ranger but also at existing legacy sites and future mines. The key anticipated outcomes of these plans include reconstruction of a culturally appropriate and useable natural environment; which we believe represents best practice in mine closure.