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Using decision science to build trust in mine closure decisions

British Columbia Mine Reclamation Symposium; University of British Columbia. Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering

In today’s changing social and environmental landscape, society requires organizations to shift to an everevolving world of ‘tell me what you are doing’, through to ‘show me what impact you are having’, and now to ‘involve me in your work’. With public trust in mining at an all-time low globally (Dhawan 2023), decision transparency involving competing objectives and unavoidable trade-offs can help build trust with interest groups, titleholders, and regulators in mine closure decisions. Decision science offers a structured approach to integrate and weigh multiple perspectives on objectives, risks, trade-offs, and preferences, that supports efficient mine closure planning. Breaking complex decisions down using logical frameworks with a structured and transparent approach helps people gain a common understanding, so that they can identify and discuss objectives. It exposes options across competing objectives at the core of difficult decisions. In contrast to other approaches such as gut feel and ‘we’ve always done it this way’, it addresses multiple objective trade-offs directly. It is a conceptually intuitive and easily applied approach. An intentional shift to structured, logical thinking provides confidence and clarity resulting in higher efficiency projects, cost savings, and a significant reduction in re-work. A decision science approach includes: (1) front end facilitation to frame the decision or decision series, (2) assessment of the project objectives including potentially conflicting desires of internal or external interest groups, (3) divergent creative thinking to identify new alternatives that better fulfill the prioritized objectives, (4) qualitative and quantitative analysis to assess and contrast alternatives based on how well they fulfill desired objectives, (5) threat identification and uncertainty management aspects that will flow into the project management and execution phase of the closure. A healthy decision culture, where teams and decision-makers foster a culture of inquiry instead of advocacy allows people embrace creative conflict and curiosity around differing values and objective trade-offs. This results in a shared understanding, identifies superior alternatives, reduces risk, and accelerates project development. Our industry can benefit from adopting a decision science approach to the many important, complex decisions we all face, as we work to increase efficiency, reduce cost, and build trust in mine closure decisions.

Conference Paper

eng

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0437489

Non UBC

Other

DSpace