South Australia's and the US's in situ leaching legislation

Challenge the practice is addressing: As in situ leaching (ISL) does not yet exist in Europe, South Australia's and the US's legislation provides good practices that could be introduced to Europe.

Concrete practice to achieve the expected goal: South Australia: Best practices of ISL include characterising the groundwater flow and composition for baseline information, addressing radiation protection, managing liquid residues because of the associated radioactivity and elevated salt concentrations as well as monitoring to ensure early identification of excursions of mining solutions and liquid residues. US: The revision of the applicable regulation (EPA 2014) will be to characterise the baseline groundwater chemistry, meet restoration goals for 13 groundwater constituents and monitor the groundwater during operation and for 30 years after demonstrating that restoration has been achieved and the system is stable.

Expected impact/goal of the practice: Introducing good practices elsewhere is anticipated to encourage policy makers to see the benefits of ISL and integrate it into existing legislation.

Who is the target user group of the practice/intervention or implementing the practice/intervention? Policy makers