​Maria Eugenia Cola

Anglo American 
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Maria Eugenia Cola is a Uruguayan Chemical Engineer, who completed her Master of Engineering Science (Management) at the University of Queensland in July 2018. Having had her first exposure to the resources sector through a commercial junior analyst role in an oil refinery in 2014, her more recent job positions have taken an environmental focus. In November 2018, she joined Anglo American to work in the integration of the Mine Closure and Life of Asset Plans for the Los Bronces mine in Chile. 
​Abstract
Closure modelling and Value creation through planning integration 
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Mining companies are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of their social licence to operate and how this can be impacted by poor planning and subsequent execution. Anglo American (AA) plc is a multinational mining company with almost 40 operations in Southern Africa, Australia, Chile, Brazil and Canada, employing over 60,000 people. Within AA, Group Technical & Sustainability (T&S) is undergoing a transformational process that looks to unlock unrealised value through the integration of the Mine Closure Planning (MCP) and Life of Asset Planning (LoAP) disciplines. Hence, corporate tools such as the ‘LoAP Framework’, the ‘Mine Closure Standard’, the ‘Mine Closure Toolbox’ (MCT) and the ‘Integrated Closure Planning System’ (ICPS) have been developed to support this outcome. 
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During the summer of 2018/19, two projects were undertaken with a multi-disciplinary approach aimed at exploiting planning synergies. These projects utilised the Deswik Enviro tool to cost a variety of Waste Rock Dump (WRD) reshape and treatment scenarios for LoA closure at the Los Bronces Copper Mine in Chile and the Mogalakwena Platinum Mine in South Africa. Progressive rehabilitation options were considered for the WRDs in both mines, and opportunities/recommendations to be integrated in future LoAPs were proposed. These included WRD redesign, waste relocation, changes in dumping schedule, and performing erodibility and geochemical tests. This paper will outline the details of this integrated planning process, which promises to play a part in establishing AA not only as the investment opportunity and the operating partner of choice, but also as the sustainable miner of the future.
Conference Speakers
Workshop Convenors
​Wednesday:
Stream 1 - Pathways to relinquishment and opportunities to transition to productive alternate land uses Stream 2 - ​Understanding Acid Mine Drainage / Acid Rock Drainage and the implications for rehabilitation and closure Stream 3 - ​Harnessing Hyperaccumulator Plants to Phytoremediate Contaminated Mining Sites Stream 4 - Issues in Tropical Forest Rehabilitation Post Mining in Borneo