from toxic to valuable: creating clean mining solutions for sustainable and shared wealth

Creating value by solving a problem: healthy animals and precious resources from waste, or why the business of cleaning and depolluting abandoned mines is particularly suited to today’s challenges.

Responsible mining companies follow best practices when it comes to finishing their operations and closing their sites, ensuring that no toxic or soon-to-be toxic materials are left behind, properly disposing of equipment and infrastructures, ideally conducting natural restoration activities.

This is and was not always the case however, and throughout the world a huge number of abandoned mining sites have become physical and environmental hazards, leaching poison into the grounds or collapsing altogether. There is a huge range of such cases, from vast reservoirs of toxic tailings to poorly-filled holes in mountainsides, some of which may be centuries old.

Tailings are the leftovers of mining operations, rocks or sand that have been grinded, filtered, and sometimes chemically treated, to extract the valuable resources they held before being disposed of. If properly handled and disposed off, these tailings are harmless and may even have a useful second life. The other scenario leads to large-scale pollution and wasted resource.

In these problems: waste, pollution and abandonment l’Iliade sees an opportunity. There are still resources to be extracted from these tailings, and the public finally sees the urgency in taking action to defend our planet.

By enlisting adequate partners, and marshalling the will of affected governments and their citizens, these damaging sites can be turned around, their wealth extracted and put to use in the cleaning and rehabilitating of their surrounding area.

Below you will find some illustrations of this scheme, from concrete cases to the full explanation of our concept that was delivered at 2019’s IGF in Geneva.