Responsible mine closure in the Arctic (Restomine)

How to successfully restore closed mines, ensuring a site that blends into the landscape but also creates stable and resilient ecosystems, meets the expectations of the local populations and prevents spreading of pollutants to the environment? The Restomine project focuses on how to integrate the societal demands, technical limitations of mine covers and the biological constraints of the Arctic, to achieve a responsible mine reclamation.

Background:

Mining has undeniable impacts locally, on landscapes, water, terrestrial ecosystems, and people who live there. In the Arctic, the scarcity of soil to cover closed mines and the slow development of vegetation makes the reclamation more difficult than in other regions of the world. A responsible and resilient mine reclamation should not only focus on technical performance to isolate waste from the environment but also consider biodiversity, ecosystem function and further landscape use in close collaboration with the local people who will live with the closed mines.

In this way reclamation can offer opportunities to co-create new landscape uses according to demands and wishes of local communities, including their practices, knowledges, at best, if integrated from an early stage of the mining activities.

Aim:

The aim of the project “Responsible mine restoration - Integrating local engagement, ecology, and engineered solutions in arctic environment” granted by NordForsk, is to develop a holistic approach to improve mine restoration in Arctic regions, in close dialogue with local communities. The project will result in recommendations to address different interests to improve the mine reclamation process e.g. to allow informed decisions from all stakeholders and understanding the needs and constraints, as well as challenges encountered by local communities and their relations to ecosystems in the Arctic.

Research activities:

The research activities are organized around four work packages:

• Local landscape-making in mine site reclamation: : Explore how local communities use the landscape before, while or after mining, and how they can contribute to develop reclamation solutions that fulfil their needs and wishes. Contact: Nathalia Brichet (UCPH); Sebastian Lundsteen Nielsen (UCPH).
• Sustainable cover material supply, Research tasks: Evaluate the suitability of locally available materials to build a cover that will efficiently isolate mine wastes from the biosphere, create a stable substrate to the ecosystem, and provide the VESs demanded by the local communities. Contact: Christian Maurice (Ltu); Yu Jia (GINR).
• Landscape reclamation and vegetation recovery, Research tasks: Develop guidelines on ecological restoration of arctic mining sites, focusing on establishment of vegetation on reclaimed mine sites. Contact: Anne Mehlhoop (NINA); Katrine Raundrup (GINR); Lis Bach (AU).

• Reclamation durability and resilience. Research tasks: Develop solutions to ensure long-term efficiency of reclamation, despite climate change and future changes in ecosystems and land-use by local communities. Contact: Thomas Pabst (NGI); Christian Maurice (Ltu).

• List of activities

About the project

Funders: NordForsk, the Swedish Research Council, Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (Formas), Research Council of Norway, Independent Research Fund Denmark and Greenland Research Council.

Project time: 2025-04-01-2029-03-31

Project partners: Aarhus University (AU), Copenhagen University (UCPH), Greenland Institute of Natural Resources (GINR), Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI), Norwegian Institute of Nature Research (NINA) and Luleå University of Technology (Ltu).

Project manager: Christian Maurice

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