Care and maintenance (C&M) refers to mines that have closed temporarily. This can be used disingenuously as a loophole to avoid mine closure, or legitimately as a lifeline with the view to recommence mining. This paper focusses on Australia, with a well-developed mining industry, a substantial mining legacy and a growing number of mines due to close. The aim of this paper is to understand and contextualise C&M as a policy challenge, identifying the barriers and constraints to recommence C&M mines and the opportunities and limitations of regulatory options to deliver positive outcomes. The method included policy document analysis followed by semi-structured interviews.

Results suggest C&M policies in Australia are few, unclear and their application limited by the high risk of C&M mines becoming abandoned. Existing policies are unable to address the complexities and vulnerabilities of mines in C&M and do not address the tension between the objective to mine and policy requirements to close mines. The findings suggest a tension between firmer regulation of C&M and a possible increased risk of abandonment. Further policy development for C&M could assist in avoiding future legacy mines but is unlikely to address the existing barriers that prevent mines in C&M from recommencing.

保养和维护 (C&M) 是指暂时关闭的矿山。这可以不诚实地用作避免关闭矿山的漏洞，或合法地用作重新开始采矿的生命线。本文重点介绍澳大利亚，该国拥有发达的采矿业、大量的采矿遗产和越来越多的矿山即将关闭。本文的目的是将 C&M 理解为一项政策挑战并将其置于背景下，确定重新启动 C&M 矿山的障碍和限制，以及监管选择带来积极成果的机会和局限性。该方法包括政策文件分析，然后是半结构化访谈。

结果表明，澳大利亚的 C&M 政策很少、不明确，而且其应用受到 C&M 矿山被废弃的高风险的限制。现有政策无法解决 C&M 中矿山的复杂性和脆弱性，也没有解决采矿目标与关闭矿山的政策要求之间的紧张关系。调查结果表明，更严格的 C&M 监管与可能增加的放弃风险之间存在紧张关系。C&M 的进一步政策制定可能有助于避免未来的遗留矿山，但不太可能解决阻止 C&M 矿山重新开始的现有障碍。