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Financial assurance rules, also known as financial responsibility or bonding requirements, foster cost internalization by requiring potential polluters to demonstrate the financial resources necessary to compensate for environmental damage that may arise in the future. Accordingly, assurance is an important complement to liability rules, restoration obligations, and other regulatory compliance requirements. The paper reviews the need for assurance, given the prevalence of abandoned environmental obligations, and assesses the implementation of assurance rules in the United States. From the standpoint of both legal effectiveness and economic efficiency, assurance rules can be improved. On the whole, however, cost recovery, deterrence, and enforcement are significantly improved by the presence of existing assurance regulations.

This study aims to explore how closed factories could be transformed and provide a path for sustainable development for a territory. The authors focus on the case of the Great Mine Serbariu, located in Carbonia (Sardinia), which used to be the largest coal mine in Italy between 1939 and 1964.

The authors adopt a qualitative research design based on an exploratory single-case study, drawing on interviews with the main stakeholders, on a survey conducted among 5,158 visitors, and on administrative documentation of the City Council.

The analysis of the Great Mine Serbariu case showed that the regeneration of an exhausted mine serves a model of sustainable development, especially for the redevelopment of other urban and industrial degraded areas. The Great mine Serbariu was restored and turned into a place of culture, tourism, research and higher education, with the Italian Cultural Centre of Coal Mining (ICCCM) establishing its headquarters in the heart of the former mine. It attracted almost 220,000 visitors, generating both domestic and international tourist flows and making an industrial heritage a real resource for the area.

This article advances the authors’ understanding of how closed industries could become an instrument for sustainable development on the social, economic, touristic and cultural levels. This study would help local governments with examples to enhance the historical resources to create a new identity that led to a sustainable development of an urban landscape, and to create networks with other comparable museums all over Europe to better exploit the touristic and cultural potential.

Grass roots movements in relationships of cooperation and conflict between firms, communities, and government have an important role to stop a living city from disappearing. This chapter describes and analyzes the implications of the collective action used by grass roots movements in the defense of an old mining town, Cerro de San Pedro, of being disappeared due to the pollution of fresh watersheds by the operations of a mining company and the effects on the living city of San Luis Potosì, in the center of Mèxico.

Utilising a database that distinctly classifies firm-level ESG (environmental, social and governance) news sentiment as positive or negative, the authors examine the information flow between the two types of ESG news sentiment and stock returns for 20 companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange between 2015 and 2021.

The authors use Shannonian transfer entropy to examine whether information significantly flows from ESG news sentiment to stock returns and a modified event study analysis to establish how stock prices react to changes in the two types of ESG sentiment.

Using Shannonian transfer entropy, the authors find that for the majority of the companies studied, information flows from the positive ESG news sentiment to stock returns while only a minority of the companies exhibit significant information flow from negative ESG news sentiment to returns. Furthermore, the study’s findings show significantly positive (negative) abnormal returns on the event date and beyond for both upgrades and downgrades in positive ESG news sentiment.

This study is among the first in an African context to investigate the impact of ESG news sentiment on stock market returns at high frequencies.

This paper aims to assess the Jos Plateau Tin-mining region as an abandoned mine area being used for housing development with a view to make recommendations.

Utilising secondary data, which maps out ten different locations in the region, this paper highlights the level of radioactive substances (X-ray, beta and gamma rays) and the presence of heavy metals in the environment, abandoned mines, home for the people as well as housing development within a derelict region. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with heads of selected settlement within the Jos Plateau Tin-mining region.

Subsequent analysis shows that the radioactive substances exceed the international standards and therefore have a serious impact on the health of the local population who reside in the affected area. This is particularly significant as people use the contaminated soil as a basic material for their homes as well as farming and food production.

With overpopulation of neighbouring city and rising house prices, an increasing number of people have moved to the Tin-mining areas often without any knowledge about the perils of contaminated soil. At the same time, the planning authority has no presence in the affected area, as it falls outside its jurisdiction.

However, there is an urgent need to address this problem and prevent people from moving to this area, otherwise this would become a serious long-term human catastrophe.

Drawing from international experience, the paper argues that it is possible to develop housing in former Tin-mining areas but require careful remediation and engagement by the public and private sector.

The discussion in this paper makes a case for appropriate physical planning measure as people build their homes on the abandoned Tin-mining areas, with the presences of heavy metals and radioactive substances which are dangerous to human health where the governments have not made provision to address the problem. It is a bridge linking a previous paper on the environment and now consideration on housing/home which together form part of an ongoing PhD research “A potential application of spatial planning in Jos, Nigeria”.

The paper explores the roles of involved organizations in the designation of Batu Arang in Gombak, Selangor, Malaysia, as the Coal Mining and Geological Heritage Site, the heritage significance selected as the elements of its designation and the challenges faced by the involved stakeholders during the designation process.

The primary research material is derived from the documentation review on the final draft of the Special Area Plan (RKK) of Batu Arang and the final draft of the Geopark Management Plan, field investigation on the heritage significances and interviews with the involved organizations: the Selayang Municipal Council (MPS), the State of Selangor Malay Custom and Heritage Corporation (PADAT) and the Village Community Management Council (MPKK) of Batu Arang.

This paper found that Batu Arang has the potential to be developed as an important heritage mining site and heritage tourism destination; however, many of the heritage significances are being demolished, invaded and abandoned due to human aggression or effects of nature. In addition, it reveals the roles of each involved organization, issues that occurred and challenges faced by the organizations during the designation process as a heritage site, namely in terms of management, property ownership and promotion.

The paper outlines that a heritage mining site like Batu Arang should be considered an important heritage as well as other heritage sites in Malaysia, and issues and challenges faced during the designation process should be discussed critically to ensure that these heritage significances will not be neglected and abandoned.

The purpose of this research is to determine the major environmental impacts and, especially, to evaluate the geochemical characteristics of water of the lakes formed in abandoned quarries of ornamental rock of the Campo Belo Metamorphic Complex.

To do so, 12 quarries were chosen to be studied. They were mapped in a detail scale and their rocks were described and sampled for petrography analysis. Whenever present, the lakes were evaluated too. In situ measurements included pH, Eh, conductivity, resistivity, total dissolved solids and temperature. Water samples were collected to determine alkalinity, sulfates, chlorates, turbidity, suspended sediments and the concentrations of major and trace elements using the ICP‐OES.

Abandoned open‐pit mining operations have resulted in the creation of numerous pit lakes. About 90 per cent of the quarries visited and studied were abandoned or interdicted by environmental organs, what will probably lead to its subsequent abandonment. The quarries Borges and Gêmeos were two quarries of the abandoned quarries in the region, which has a lake formed in its trench. Gêmeos and Borges pit lakes analytical data shows clear correlation between the chemical compositions of the solute and the geological characteristics of the quarries. In spite of the differences found, the results showed a relatively quality water according to Brazilian legislation control values.

This was the first study done of pit lakes formed in abandoned ornamental rock quarries of Campo Belo Metamorphic Complex/Minas Gerais – Brazil. This research provides a better understanding of the gneisses pit lakes hydrogeochemistry, a subject neglected in scientific literature.

A study has been undertaken of radon levels in an abandoned metalliferous mine in South‐West England. Measurements have been taken in Gunnislake Old Adit using a variety of techniques. Radon gas levels of between 30,000Bq m^‐3 and 69,000Bq m^‐3 have been noted in this mine, associated with radon progeny levels of between 2.6 and 4.8 working levels. These radon levels pose a health risk for regular visitors to such mines.

The purpose of this study is to explore the genocidal impacts of uranium mining for Native Americans in the Northwest and Northern Plains, as well as their resistance to historical and contemporary acts of colonialism.

Using a case study approach, this study gathered qualitative data from various government, tribal and news sources to investigate the extent of ecological violence experienced by Native Americans specific to uranium mining processes on Spokane Indian Reservation, Pine Ridge Reservation and Wind River Reservation.

Native Americans in the Northwest and Northern Plains are victimized by the capitalism-genocide involved in uranium production. The consequences of the uranium industry boom in the 1950s–1980s has left Native Americans with degraded lands, polluted water sources and a legacy of adverse health effects, including some of the highest rates of cancer.

The work discussed in this paper offers possibilities for collaborating with Native Americans to develop more sustainable energy options for the USA to make the necessary shift away from fossil fuels and nuclear energy.

Prior research has addressed the genocidal impacts of uranium mining for Native Americans in the Southwest USA and claimed these actions were direct consequences of toxic colonialism, capitalistic agendas and the treadmill of production (Fegadel, 2023). Most uranium was recovered from ore deposits within the Colorado Plateau, and most abandoned uranium mines (AUMs) are located within the same region. Tribes residing in the Northwest and Northern Plains have, however, experienced similar plights as those in the Southwest, but these issues have not been widely examined.