Mine Closure and Restoration Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis

Client: Fortune 500 Mining Client

Summary: Cardno ENTRIX has experience developing a mine closure plan for a large copper mine located on land leased from a Native American Tribal Nation for a Fortune 500 mining client. The impediments to developing an effective closure plan included ambiguous lease agreement language, recent increases in copper prices, Tribal issues, regulatory requirements, long term management of surface and groundwater impacts, and incomplete technical characterization. Cardno ENTRIX professionals developed multi-criteria decision analysis to evaluate mine operations and environmental remediation alternatives. Three strategic alternatives were analyzed including closure in one year, continued operations for the next ten years and then closing, and expanding mine operations with closure sometime within a 20 to 30 time frame. The evaluation criteria included community acceptance, cleanup standards achieved (residential / industrial), net present value, cash flow, time frame for site resolution. The model indicated that continued operations for the next ten years (i.e., no mine expansion) as the preferred alternative. This result represented an expected net present value savings of in excess of $50 million dollars over the next best alternative (i.e., closure in one year).