Mine Closure Policies in South America

The document outlines best practices for mine closure, emphasizing the necessity of early planning and robust financial assurance to prevent the state from inheriting liabilities from abandoned mines. It specifically examines the comprehensive national laws in Chile and Peru, noting that while both align with international standards for physical and chemical stability, they lack significant emphasis on social transition and post-mining land use. The study details the specific legal milestones, financial instruments, and reporting requirements used in both countries to ensure mine sites are safely reclaimed.

• Financial assurance is considered a fundamental element of effective mine closure policy to ensure that sufficient funds are available for a third party to reclaim a site if the operator is unable or unwilling to do so, thereby preventing the public from absorbing the costs of abandoned mines.
• Climate change is a necessary consideration in the design of mine closure systems because their design lives often span hundreds to thousands of years, and changing precipitation and temperature patterns can alter the risk profile of post-closure landforms and infrastructure.
• Chile and Peru are the only two countries in Latin America to have established comprehensive national mine closure legislation requiring financial assurance, though both countries' laws lack significant focus on post-mining land use and social aspects of closure.
• Chile's Law 20.551 requires mining companies with extraction rates over 10,000 tons per month to provide regularly updated closure plans and financial assurance, with the full amount typically built up within 15 years or two-thirds of the mine's useful life.
• Peru's mine closure framework requires detailed closure plans to be submitted after the first three years of operation and every five years thereafter, with financial assurance calculated as the total cost of the closure plan minus any completed progressive closure measures.
• Chile utilizes a specific unit of exchange called Unidades Fomento (UF) to calculate financial assurance, which automatically protects the funds against inflation.

APA

Weeks, B., & Slingerland, N. (2021). Mine Closure Policies in South America. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2021-01/igf-case-study-mine-closure-south-america-en.pdf

Chicago

Weeks, Bjorn, and Neeltje Slingerland. Mine Closure Policies in South America. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2021. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2021-01/igf-case-study-mine-closure-south-america-en.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Weeks |first1=Bjorn |last2=Slingerland |first2=Neeltje |title=Mine Closure Policies in South America |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=2021 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2021-01/igf-case-study-mine-closure-south-america-en.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{weeks2021mine, author = {Weeks, Bjorn and Slingerland, Neeltje}, title = {{Mine Closure Policies in South America}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2021}, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2021-01/igf-case-study-mine-closure-south-america-en.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }