"In reality," says John Torbert, a Virginia Tech research associate who also is chairman of the American Society for Surface Mining and Reclamation's forestry and wildlife division, "people seldom use
mined land later as hayland/pasture.
Most of the deposit can be
mined by a low-cost open pit method.
The fact that not all the vein-schist contacts in Wadi Sikait have been
mined is an indication that either the beryl deposits are erratic in their occurrence or they were never fully exploited.
Sometimes the term "inactive" is used for mines that aren't currently being
mined, but for which a known owner is still paying taxes.
Exploration drilling at McCreedy's Inter Main Deposit was designed to replace ore reserves
mined during 2006.
As an opening overview paper, Younger and Robins (the editors) discuss challenges in characterizing and predicting the hydrogeology and geochemistry of
mined ground, apparently perceived as the thread connecting many of the papers scattered in the book.