Rehabilitation
Rio Tinto conducts progressive rehabilitation, wherever possible, to reduce the impacts on the environment and minimise liabilities at the time of closure. The length of time an operation has been mining (or milling/refining) and the mining method required will influence the area available for rehabilitation. Some land is required for long term infrastructure (such as roads and processing plants), most of which cannot be rehabilitated or decommissioned until the mining operation has ceased. The nature of the mining operation will also influence the ability to undertake progressive rehabilitation, for example, at vertical surface mines access to the ore means that most of the land remains open until closure.
By the end of 2005, 26 per cent of Rio Tinto's total footprint of 1,459 square kilometres had been rehabilitated. The remaining footprint, also referred to as the rehabilitation deficit, will be progressively rehabilitated as the land becomes available.
Seventy seven per cent of the land rehabilitated during 2005 was returned to native vegetation, 19 per cent to agriculture and four per cent to forest.
A case study demonstrating rehabilitation targeting the enhancement of habitats involves the wetland tailings rehabilitation programme [pdf] by IOC.
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