For more information about this event, please visit http://www.minerehabilitation.com.au , call +61 2 9229 1000 or email enquire@iqpc.com.au

1. Arthur Chan
Hi, this is Arthur Chan from Mining IQ and for this interview I am joined by Timothy Duff
who is the Environmental Engineer at Cliffs Natural Resources, who is currently working
on the Koolyanobbing operations. So thank you for joining us Timothy and welcome.
Timothy Duff
Yeah, thank you very much for having me Arthur.
Arthur Chan
Great. So now before we begin Tim, can you please tell us a bit about yourself and
your experience?
Timothy Duff
Yeah, no worries. I studied at Curtin University and part of the school of mines. I
studied mining environmental engineering and finished that in the end of the ’08 and
then since then I’ve been working for Cliffs at the Koolyanobbing operations.
Arthur Chan
Great. So, thanks for that. So now, I guess mine closure today is less of a technical
challenge, and more of a management one. And one part of this evolution is, I guess,
the integration of mine closure practices to everyday practices. So then, what are the
best practices for this then?
Timothy Duff
Yes Arthur, I think that’s totally true, that statement, because now there’s really a good
understanding of what a best practice is with regards to mine closure issues are,
especially within mining company’s environmental themes. But I suppose really, the
main challenge lies with getting mine planning teams to adjust their ways of thinking to
ensure that they integrate good practices in their everyday mining life, getting them to
understand the benefits and importance of a good environmental practice and to start
working towards mine closure really from day one.
The other big challenge is getting finance departments to realize that there’s more up
straight costs associated with mine closure today, especially with new regulations and
legislations coming involved and opposed to having the all the olden day way of thinking
really with much of the cost of mine closure associated at the backend. Also, there’s a
lot more information that’s now being required by regulators prior to approving a mining
proposal, mainly to ensure their operations can be properly closed and the integration of
mine planning into the project processes such as exploration to ensure the cost of
capturing this information is really minimized.

2. I suppose, the best way to overcome these issues is to consult mining experts on an
early stage. I understand and agree with stakeholders what they expect and what can
be achieved from mine closure. It’s really important that the stakeholders understand
that mine closure is not really a one-size-fits-all process and then the closure criteria
and the objectives need to be specific to individual staffs and really need to ensure that
a closure plan is dynamic and established well before the work expenditures of the mine
before it runs out. Otherwise, some of the golden opportunities are going to be lost.
And I suppose finally, although mine closure applies to areas of the operation, much to
the focus of closure, it is now directing towards the waste rock landforms. Cliffs believe
that management plan should really be developed to each new waste rock landforms
and that that process should be done with mine planning themes. To ensure at least,
we require that both the manager of technical services and the manager of
environmental services sign off on any management plan.
Arthur Chan
Okay. That’s really interesting. So now where are you looking towards for, I guess,
case studies or successful examples of mine closure and/or rehabilitation?
Timothy Duff
Yes Arthur. I suppose attending conferences such as this one and networking with
other organizations is really the best way to achieve this. We’re also trying to develop
relationships with other mining companies, whereby other members of the team or
myself can visit their company’s site and especially when mining companies recognized
implementing best practice in the area and I suppose another place we’re looking for is
really in our own thought, we’ve got some really good examples of good regional portion
and some examples of some pretty poor stuff and we've recently conducted a review of
all our waste dumps to determine what was done in order to show the good stuff and
what was done to show the bad stuff in regards to really vegetational growth and
stability, and that review has shaped the construction of the rehabilitation processes and
also really helping in a way of developing new waste rock landforms.
Arthur Chan
Great. So now there’s always constant change in the legislation relating to closure
plans, how are you keeping up to date on this and how do you actually ensure all your
internal stakeholders to comply with regulations?
Timothy Duff
We currently sit on the Chamber of Minerals and Energy Committee, which both their
department of mines and petroleum and the environmental protection have already
liaised to this committee regarding any changes for legislation. I don’t personally attend
these committee meetings so I really try and pick up to stay through to attend

3. conferences such as this, especially when the DMP are attending and also are getting
information of the members of that company who attend the committee meetings. and
with regards to making sure internal stakeholders comply with any of these legislation
changes, it’s really they’re trying to integrate our best practices of environmental
management team to their everyday mine practices as well as discussing that earlier
question.
Arthur Chan
Okay. So now what do you think are the major obstacles to successful mine closure
and rehabilitation? And I guess, how can companies overcome these?
Timothy Duff
That’s a really big question, it’s really never ending. I suppose what we consider the
major obstacles are integrating mine closure practices in the everyday practices.
Planning mine closure from an early stage is really hard to do when you get people
thinking about it early on. But this is really going to be soon overcome I think, but
changes to the regulator requirements at approval stages. Developing and
understanding between all parties regarding the fact that there will be elements of
uncertainty; I mean, models are just tool that can only give you an indication of what’s
present and the long-term problem is going to come up wherever. Sampling programs
should be established following risk assessments. For example, it’s been a long history
of acid rock drainage in the area, really when they do the more comprehensive
sampling program, also, regulated expectations and the bureaucracy associated with
that, budgeting, and this will always be a major issue, and identifying the final land use
is really hard to do. And currently, there are number of stakeholders that have different
opinions on what when they claim it should be and that’s in turn a challenge.
We can attempt to overcome this by sitting down with mining plans at an early stage of
the mine’s operations and integrating closure practices. For example, we’re developing
our waste rock landform management plans or any new waste rock landform into our
everyday practices, developing a closure criteria with external and internal stakeholders
and ensuring that this is understood and that mine closure is really a dynamic process
with the goal post regularly changing, and finally, we can do it about developing a
closure system for the operation that identifies processes required to hopefully close out
their operations and give an awareness that it’s been operating for decades. One their
tasks is developers have created closure management plan for various parts of that
business, creating a whole road, workshops, villages, an old town sites.
Arthur Chan
Great. So thank you for your time Timothy and we look forward to seeing you at the
conference in June.
Timothy Duff

4. No. Thank you very much Arthur, I'm looking forward to as well. You’ve been listening
to Mining IQ with Timothy Duff, Environmental Engineer at Cliffs Natural Resources.
And for more information about this event, please visit www.minerehabilitation.com.au
or call us on 02-9229-1000. Or you can email us on enquire@iqpc.com.au. And don’t
forget you can also join our discussions about the mining industry via twitter@miningiq.
And that’s all, until next time.