A useful checklist of items to consider when estimating the cost of closure of a mine is provided by Nevada at this link. The document is the Mine Plan of Operations Reclamation Bond Checklist.

Items listed include:

  • Reclamation plans and specifications
  • Drill hole abandonment
  • Access roads and drill pads
  • Waste and development rock piles
  • Dams for tailings ponds
  • Impoundments for tailings
  • Heaps from leaching
  • Solution ponds, settling ponds, and other non-tailings impoundments
  • Building foundations, facilities, structures, and other equipment
  • Open pit mines
  • Underground mines
  • Revegetation
  • Supervision
  • Site maintenance and site monitoring
  • Contractor administrative overhead
  • Contractor profit
  • Lead agency overhead