ISO International meeting of TC82: Mining and SC7 Sustainable Mining and Mine Closure – Update No 11 to AusIMM members
The ISO TC82 SC7 – Sustainable Mining and Mine Closure sub-committee hosted their International Meeting in Seoul, South Korea.
The ISO TC82 Mining Committee at the invitation of the SC7 secretariat also held their International Meeting at the same location. Thus, TC 82, SC7 and their respective task forces also met from 14-17 October 2024 and culminated in a field trip on 18 October to the impressively closed and repurposed Samtam coal mine. http://samtanartmine.com/file/download/samtanartmine-english.pdf
Tania Laurençont represented (as Head of Delegation) Standards Australia in Seoul, while Dr Artem Golev and I participated virtually.
SC7 Task Force 1 - Social Aspects
Task Force 1 ‘social aspects’ (TF1) was formed about 2 years ago under the previous scope for SC7 – Mine Closure and Reclamation Management. TC82 subsequently requested SC7 broaden its scope to include sustainability concepts. During this process, TF1 was paused. The revised SC7 scope was approved in the TC 82 Plenary Meeting - September 2023 - Germany.
TF1 recommenced activities under the new scope of SC7 - Sustainable Mining and Mine Closure, with the first task being to update the outline of a potential new standard, including updating supporting documents. These documents were then submitted to a ballot of International Participating Member Nations (P-Members).
This ballot requested P-Members to vote on approval, disapproval or to abstain on the question of progressing the Task Force to a Working Group. In addition, a second component of the ballot requested P-Members to nominate experts. The results of this ballot was in favour of approval, however not all approving participating nations provided experts. As such, a Committee Internal Ballot is currently open to seek expert nominations from those P-Members that approved the ballot, however, did not nominate an expert. Tania Laurencont is Convenor of TF1.
SC7 Task Force 4 - Value of discarded natural materials from mining
Task Force 4 (TF4) is investigating the potential of developing a standard on 1) a standardised method for determining economic value of or in discarded natural materials, to inform potential secondary sources that could be available for reuse or recovery, and 2) aligning the management of discarded natural materials with circular economy principles by maintaining the highest value of these materials.
Artem Golev presented an outline and options for a standard development process. Work being progressed by this TF will include the development of a proposal and draft outline of a standard. Artem Golev is the Convenor of TF4.
SC7 - Sustainable Mining and Mine closure, Plenary
Since the last international meeting, both ICMM and UNIDO have joined SC7 as liaisons, this status allows representatives from these organisations to participate in SC7 meetings and provide comment, however, they do not have voting rights.
Updates were provided on the work of TF1 and TF4 (see earlier TF updates).
Three Preliminary Work Items were discussed by their proposers: 1) Guidance for maintenance and of tailings storage facilities, Convenor Mr In-Jae Yang (Korea), 2) Mine water monitoring and assessment (Korea) (seeking a Convenor) and 3) Backfilling of underground workings at mines with tailings Convenor (China). All 3 were approved by resolution to establish task forces.
TC 82 - Mining, Plenary
Sadly, the Chair of TC82 had passed away since our last international meeting and a process is underway to appoint a new chair. Sub-committees SC7 and SC8 provided updates on their activities. AusIMM will have other representatives reporting on the SC8 Mirror Committee.
Actions underway
The SC7 Mirror Committee has lost several members due to role changes within organisations. To address this Standards Australia are actively working with nominating organisations to fill these vacancies. This is particularly critical when Australia provides such important roles in SC7. Standards Australia is also working to increase the membership of both the Mirror Committee and TFs to ensure that they have the right expertise to address the broadened scope and new standards development.
Photos of ISO TC82 Mining cohort (top) and Samtan Art Mine (below) provided by T Laurencont.
