This article presents a concept method which aids the forecasting of the reclamation cost in post- rock mining areas. The method may also prove useful in estimating the investment profitability of a mining operation at its planning stage as well as managing a potential Reserve Fund to cover future activities, such as land reclamation. The development of the method consisted in defining a set of basic/typical land reclamation directions and the typical structure of reclamation operations/works, which are based on “statistically stable” values. The estimations included the distribution of the probable cost of these works with respect to the reclamation direction and were calculated on the basis of the analyzed current price lists and historical land reclamation projects. The article proposes a method for estimating the cost structure of multi-directional projects by combining the basic directions. The changeability and predictability of various land reclamation solutions was analyzed in terms of fuzzy logic. A price list was developed, which included unit costs for separate types of reclamation works, independent of their type and scale. The assumed optimal measure involved comparing the cost of individual types of operations to the surface of the reclamation area. As an example, the method was also applied to hypothetical data from a clastic rock mine with a surface of 20 ha, and for the forest, agricultural and forest-agricultural reclamation directions. The forest-agricultural reclamation directions was presented in the proportions of 0.3:0.7.

Open pit mining has severe environmental impacts on the environment of mining region. Mined land reclamation procedure in open pit mining contains numerous activities in order to prevent, monitor, control reduce environmental impacts of a project from exploration stage to exploitation, to mine closure and beyond. After mine closure, a permanent Post Mining Land Use (PMLU) should be implemented as an appropriate choice for use of different sections of mined land in an open pit mine. Mined land in open pit mining comprise different sections as pit(s), waste dump(s), tailing pond(s), roads, areas for on site facilities and free land zones which are not mined. The selected PMLU for each section of mined land as the most appropriate alternative based on the different points of view is presented as Optimum Post Mining Land Use (OPMLU). OPMLU for each section of mined land and the specifications of mine site are the most decisive parameters which affect the quality and volume of mine closure procedure, reclamation process and their costs. Furthermore, to define Ultimate Pit Limit (UPL) in open pit mining, consideration of mine closure and reclamation costs is essential as other costs of a mining project. Therefore, defining OPMLU for each section of mined land is essential within planning phase of an open pit mining project. In this paper the applicable alternatives of PMLU, the effective criteria, attributes and sub-attributes for defining OPMLU are presented for pit area amongst different sections of mined land. Pit area amongst different sections of mined land has more significant effects on the adjacent environment and also on defining OPMLU for the other sections of mined land. As there are several alternatives of PMLU, several criteria, attributes and sub-attributes for defining OPMLU, Multi Attribute Decision Making (MADM) methods are efficient techniques to define OPMLU for pit area. Fuzzy sets use a spectrum of numbers instead of using absolute numbers. As well, the nature of the effective parameters for defining OPMLU is same as Fuzzy numbers including incremental changes without definite limits thus the use of Fuzzy MADM modeling can produce more reliable results than the other techniques. As pair-wise comparisons and judgments through Fuzzy numbers have proper consistency with the nature of the effective parameters for defining OPMLU accordingly, a model is developed to attain OPMLU for pit area through Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Processing (FAHP). As a case study the model was implemented in Sungun copper mine in Northwest of Iran. Lumber production was defined as OPMLU for the pit area in this mine. It is finally concluded that using the developed model, OPMLU is defined for pit area as a key parameter to estimate reclamation costs in planning phase of an open pit mining project.