This paper presents a tool for managing inoperative mines under the responsibility of the Mine Closure and Projects Management/Ferrous Planning and Development Department - Vale S.A., Brazil. Inoperative mines are defined as mines where mining operations are temporarily suspended and there is no definitive strategy regarding their closure. The main management challenges are to: (i) act in a variety of environments and conditions based on action priorities; (ii) identify the main company's image risks; (iii) plan for maintenance and monitoring; (iv) take care of environmental conditions of the sites and follow up audit recommendations; (v) coordinate the field operations and site rehabilitation; (vi) re-evaluate the rehabilitation performance of the site over time, (vii) support the mine closure team. The tool is based on the consolidation of field information through qualitative and quantitative analyses of the environmental risks and quality of each mine. These analyses support the decision-making process and the prioritisation of action to be taken. The tool provides a performance evaluation of the sites, allowing evaluation over time of the maintenance and rehabilitation actions carried out. The input for the tool consists of primary and secondary data (geotechnical and environmental) collected during fieldwork, which is then processed in spreadsheets. These assign prioritisation values based on two main themes: environmental risk and quality. Each of these themes has specific groups of subjects. The prioritization spreadsheet generates thematic maps that present the classification of the mine areas and the action priorities. The tool output is an action plan that guides management, considering all the structures of each site under its responsibility.
Mine closure; risk analyses; inoperative mines
