Mineral extraction and processing are temporary land uses that have the potential to createlong-lasting effects on water and land uses. These residual risks must be managed and mitigated, during mining if rehabilitation and closure are to meet community expectations. Previous research highlights features of failure to rehabilitate and close a mine site successfully, however, cases of successful rehabilitation and closure that mitigate residual risks are less well understood. This research reveals what constitutes successful rehabilitation and closure through a lens of ‘high reliability’ or ‘reliability seeking’ theory. This uses an alternative, socially constructed, paradigm to show that organisations seeking successful mine rehabilitation and closure apply the five processes of ‘high reliability organising’ (HRO) (Weick & Sutcliffe, 2001). We found there is a sixth process, ‘designing and planning for long time periods into the future’ by undertaking document analysis on four cases of rehabilitation and closure – three in Australia and one overseas. An additional novel observation is the degree to which diverse external stakeholders are engaged in all but one process.
Unger, C. J. & Everingham, J-A. (2019, April 29). Reliable mine rehabilitation and closure to minimise residual risk. IAIA2019, Brisbane Impact assessment of Project closure: meeting the new expectations.