Journal of the Korean Society of Mineral and Energy Resources Engineers ISSN:2288-0291(Print) 2288-2790(Online) 한국자원공학회지

Standardization for the management of mine impacts refers to all acts of establishing and disseminating international or domestic standards, such as test methods, procedures, and guidelines for minimizing hazards that occur during the lifecycle of a mine i.e., from planning and development to closure. Although developing countries, which rely heavily on multinational mine developers for their resource development activities, are aware of the problems of mining damage, they find it challenging to determine whether the reclamation plan proposed by the mine developer is appropriate due to the absence of international standards. Korea proposed the necessity of establishing a standard for mine closure management to ISO. With the establishment of the mine closure and reclamation management subcommittee (SC 7) in 2012, the activities of the Mining Technical Committee (TC 82), which had been dormant after 1962, resumed. The SC 7 developed nine strategies for promoting international standards in 2019 and, based on these, it first established a vocabulary for mine closure and reclamation management (ISO 20305) in 2020. Additionally, the committee reviewed mine closure and reclamation planning (ISO/DIS 21795 part 1 & 2) and abandoned mine management (ISO WD 24419). The establishment of international standards for mine closure and reclamation management will be the cornerstone of sustainable mine development, as the standards can provide guidelines for post-mining activities to stakeholders.