Principal Consultant
ERM
Graham Farrer is an environmental and project management professional with more than 20 years’ experience. His experience as a leader in a mining operational environment, participating in closure studies for Rio Tinto, leading a complex social and engineering closure study for the Australian Government, and delivering mine closure projects as a consultant, has allowed him to develop a unique perspective on mine closure. He has developed and optimised mine closure outcomes for assets producing coal, lithium, precious metals, iron ore, bauxite and alumina, potash, barite, uranium, diamonds, and minerals sands for assets located in Australia, Africa, Europe, North America, and South America. At ERM he supports clients globally to achieve improved mining outcomes. This work includes developing closure and other environmental guidelines, strategic closure planning, environmental and mine closure due diligence, supporting mining scoping reports, mine closure cost estimating, and supporting energy transition projects.
Reimagining mine closure
When a resource is exhausted, the investment in closing the mine is significant and the benefits of such an investment are often not realised. Reimagining mine closure is a suite of solutions which aim to reduce the overall investment required to close a mine but also improve the social and environmental outcomes. Reimagining mine closure embeds the concepts of designing and operating for closure, mining as a temporary land use, and the importance of targeting a positive lasting legacy post-closure. This presentation provides examples mine closure can be reimagined, including integrating mine closure into project development, probabilistic cost modelling, operationalising progressive closure, and supporting effective social transition post-closure.