Mine Closure 2010, held on 23-26 November in Viña del Mar, was the fifth of a series of international closure conferences initiated in
2006 by the Australian Centre for Geomechanics and Centre for Land Rehabilitation of the University of Western Australia. This conference series has become a well recognised international forum that puts technical excellence first.

An outstanding technical programme featured over 60 presentations and discussed the different issues related to responsible planning, design and development of mine closure activities. If the previous conferences were mainly focused on what could be or what should be done in planning and operating the closure stage of a mine, this fifth conference gave all the participants the opportunity to learn what has been or what is being done in different parts of the world.

More than 400 delegates attended the second conference held in Santiago in 2007, which made it clear that Chile was a worthy host of this conference series. It was our great pleasure to bring the conference back to Chile and welcome over 300 delegates from 29 countries to the 2010 venue – a beautiful beach town Viña del Mar.

From the opening ceremony to the farewell reception, we hope you took the opportunity to actively participate in the technical sessions and to network throughout the conference, to meet old friends and make new ones. Your participation, enthusiasm, bright ideas and knowledge sharing has been a great contribution to this conference and has made it a truly memorable occasion.

We wish to thank speakers, reviewers, committee members, session chairs, sponsors, exhibitors, Gecamin staff, and all of the participants, for the skills, patience, knowledge, passion and commitment you brought to the event. It goes without saying that without your inspirational and motivational support this event would have simply not been possible!

We look forward to seeing you soon at one of our next events. Mark your 2011 calendar for the Clean Mining conference (www.clean-mining.com) and First International Seminar on Social Responsibility in Mining (www.srmining.com).

Mine Closure 2010 Organising Committee