Due to concerns regarding potential environmental impacts of brine contamination in future, potash producers in Saskatchewan are required to submit decommission and reclamation plans for each of their mine sites to Saskatchewan Environment by July, 2005. While a number of technically feasible decommission, reclamation and related tailings management (DRTM) options exist, it is important to employ a credible and pragmatic method of evaluation in order to select the 'best' option from the

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... nt of all stakeholders and thereby avoid potentially wasteful expenditure. For this reason, the authors worked with both industry and regulators to develop a generic, computer-based, cost-benefit modeling framework that supports a rational evaluation of considered DRTM options. Since both industry and regulators are committed to the modeling framework and related quantitative process, the modeling results and rankings reached will ultimately support the decommission and reclamation plans submitted by potash producers.