2020: The Year in Review
VANCOUVER, BC (Jan. 15, 2021) — Amid the extraordinary challenges of 2020, the Landform Design Institute forged ahead to implement its mandate over the year. This included moving its lectures online, launching a podcast, recruiting members, expanding its Technical Advisory Panel, drafting a new position paper, and carrying out a “gap analysis” that will prove integral to the Institute’s workplan heading into 2021. Below is an overview of our achievements over the year, and a look ahead.
Lectures: Maintaining the momentum of the five-day inaugural graduate-school-level landform design course held in December 2019 at the University of Alberta, LDI Board members made several presentations on landform design in 2020 prior to the COVID-19 lockdowns. In February, LDI Chair Gord McKenna and Board Member June Pollard lectured on landform design in Canada prior to courses moving online. They teamed up to provide senior engineering students in Jeff Boisvert’s fourth-year Environmental Impact of Mining Activities class at the University of Alberta with an introduction to landform design, how it works, the steps involved, and case histories.
Best Practices: In March, McKenna included the practical “how to” aspects of landform design in a presentation to the Geotechnical Society of Edmonton, focusing on designing and building landforms that are easy to reclaim and can meet stakeholder goals and objectives. As well, Mike O’Kane, chair of the TAP, led a discussion on best practices in mine landform design at the University of Minnesota’s Natural Resources Research Institute in Duluth, describing the 12 principles of responsibly reclaiming mine lands.
Online lectures: Adapting to pandemic restrictions, LDI Board and TAP members conducted numerous online landform design lectures in 2020. LDI Chair Gord McKenna produced a six-part, short-video lecture series for limited release. The series includes an introduction to landform design and lectures on the current status of mine reclamation, the design team in action, constructing landforms, case histories, and the challenges in this emerging field. The first two lectures are available for members on the LDI website under “Lectures.” In 2021, a series of virtual lectures will be rolled out to LDI members, as well as a series of short vignettes that will be distributed more broadly.
Podcast: The Getting Closure podcast series was launched and made available on multiple platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Anchor. In the first three episodes, host Mike O’Kane spoke with LDI Chair Gord McKenna, geochemistry and mineralogy specialist Mark Logsdon, and Australia-based mine rehabilitation and closure planning specialist Corinne Unger. More episodes are coming in 2021.
Technical Advisory Panel: The Institute was pleased to welcome new Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) members in 2020, including Doina Priscu, a registered professional engineer with more than 25 years of experience. Priscu is the principal engineer for mining environment with Priscu and Associates, and previously was acting director of regulatory approval and mine closure for Teck Resources. The other new members are profiled in the Winter 2021 issue of the Quarterly newsletter.
Global Tailings Standard: Members of the LDI Board and TAP contributed in 2020 to a compendium of papers in support of the new Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management, which was released in the summer by the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). LDI Chair Gord McKenna and TAP Member Dirk Van Zyl produced a chapter on closure and reclamation, while Van Zyl also collaborated with Angela Küpper of BGC Engineering and John Thompson of PetraScience Consultants on a chapter on mine tailings.
Coffee experiment: In the fall, the results of a first-of-its-kind experiment using coffee to demonstrate the physics of geotechnical processes involved in rainfall percolation through landform covers were submitted as an article for a forthcoming issue of Canadian Geotechnique, a magazine produced by the Canadian Geotechnical Society. The experiment was led by LDI Chair Gord McKenna and TAP Member Nick Beier, and the team included research associate Ahlam Abdulnabi and co-op student Abby Paul.
Position paper: Over the latter half of 2020, the Board developed an LDI position paper, slated for release to members for review in mid-January and to the public at the end of January 2021. The position paper will describe the state of practice in the industry and identify several gaps that need addressing to bring about effective and sustainable mine reclamation. The paper is based on interviews conducted by LDI Chair Gord McKenna, the experiences and expertise of members of the Board and the TAP, and a preliminary literature search of landform guidance documents produced in the past 20 years.
Business Plan: The Board is updating the Institute’s 2021 business plan, and will be releasing it early in the New Year on the landformdesign.com website.
Library: For the position paper, the LDI undertook a literature search that identified several key publications from around the world produced in the past 20 years. In 2021, the Institute will be expanding its library for members with numerous publications and accompanying synopses.
Design Tools: In the course of preparing the LDI position paper, the Board carried out a “gap analysis” and identified several areas where design tools and checklists are required. The Institute will start developing these tools in 2021 for distribution to members.
Symposium: The Institute began laying the groundwork for a landform design case study symposium, tentatively slated for 2022. At the symposium, experts will share their experiences with approaches to landform design and reclamation around the world.
Looking forward to 2021
In 2021, the Institute will continue developing and sharing podcasts, news items, an expanding library, and online lectures, and will produce a series of short video vignettes on aspects of landform design. Members will have advance access to a planned series of discussion papers and technical reports the Institute will be producing as a result of the Board’s gap analysis. These publications will be based on literature reviews, ongoing interviews with experts, and the professional experiences of the Board and TAP members. The Institute will be working hard at expanding its individual, student and corporate memberships, as well as sponsorship. This support is critical to ensuring the LDI can pursue its mandate of making landform design routine in the mining industry worldwide by 2030. On behalf of the entire Institute, the LDI Board and TAP wish everyone the very best for the New Year!