New remediation programme will tackle diffuse metal pollution from abandoned mines across river catchments, using innovative methods to protect water and wildlife.
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A new programme signalled by the Mining Remediation Authority aims to confront diffuse metal pollution from abandoned mine sites across UK river catchments. Through its Mine Waste Remediation Project, the Authority plans to use innovative techniques to stabilise mine wastes, with the twin goals of improving water quality and boosting biodiversity.
Published in November 2025 as a Prior Information Notice, the project sets out a clear aim: to mitigate diffuse metalliferous pollution from abandoned metal mine sites in UK river catchments. Unlike obvious point sources, diffuse pollution seeps into rivers from spoil heaps, tailings and contaminated soils spread across a landscape, making it harder to control and monitor.
The Authority’s focus on “innovative techniques to stabilise mine wastes” suggests a move beyond simple containment. Stabilisation is central to limiting the movement of metals from old workings into nearby streams and rivers. By reducing the mobility of contaminants at source, the project is designed to cut pollution downstream and help aquatic habitats recover.
The explicit link to water quality and biodiversity places ecology at the heart of the work, not as a secondary benefit. The project is framed around river catchments rather than individual sites, signalling an intent to deal with legacy mining impacts at landscape scale.
The emphasis on catchments aligns with how other recent procurements are approaching water-related pollution. In July 2025, a nutrient mitigation scheme in the River Wye catchment was launched through Norse Commercial Services Ltd’s Nutrient Mitigation Project, centred on upgrading domestic wastewater treatment and monitoring nutrient reductions. There too, the unit of action is the whole catchment.
Similarly, in September 2025 the Environment Agency commissioned a Peatland Water Quality Review. That project seeks indicators of water quality health in peatland catchments and examines how peatland degradation affects water quality, while also looking at how monitoring can be improved. It shows another arm of the public sector wrestling with diffuse, landscape-scale pressures on rivers.
Where peatland studies focus on organic matter and acidity, and nutrient schemes on agricultural and domestic inputs, the mine waste project tackles metalliferous contamination. Yet all three link pollution control with ecological outcomes, and all make catchments the organising frame. This suggests bidders with experience in integrated catchment management, monitoring and ecological surveying will find a familiar language in the Authority’s plans.
Though the new UK project is at an early signalling stage, its focus on innovative stabilisation methods and ecological recovery sits comfortably within a wider European pattern of more ambitious remediation work.
In May 2025, Clyde Gateway issued a prior information notice for Contaminated Land Remediation at Shawfield, seeking a contractor to carry out ex-situ soil stabilisation to address chromium contamination. Like the mine waste initiative, that project reaches for stabilisation techniques to reduce long-term environmental risks.
Elsewhere in Europe, industrial and mining legacies are prompting similar interventions. In June 2025, Mníšecká servisní, s.r.o. launched Ecological Remediation in Mníšek pod Brdy, targeting historical ecological burdens from former metallurgical operations and explicitly linking clean-up with the restoration of affected biotopes. In July 2025, the Bureau de Recherche en Géologie Minière began Environmental Monitoring in Orbiel Valley, tracking water, sediments, soils, stability, drainage and dust across former mining and industrial sites.
Soil stabilisation and water restoration also feature in large-scale industrial projects. The Schwarze Pumpe industrial area in Germany is the subject of extensive remediation works through the Schwarze Pumpe Industrial Park Remediation, published in June 2025, which combines soil stabilisation, removal of contaminated materials and the restoration of ponds and infiltration areas.
Mining-related water management is also being rethought. In September 2025, Lausitzer und Mitteldeutsche Bergbau-Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH commissioned a Water Management Study for Mining Areas to design a sustainable water network for former open-cast mines, tying together residual water bodies, watercourses, nature conservation and legal requirements.
Perhaps closest in spirit to the UK mine waste project is a September 2025 German contract for Nature-based Solutions for Water Pollution, which seeks to identify pollution sources from historic mining to support implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive. It combines source identification, water quality objectives and an explicit link to regulatory frameworks.
Taken together, these projects show public buyers moving towards integrated soil–water–ecology approaches for historic pollution. The Mining Remediation Authority’s plans sit within that trajectory, with a particular focus on diffuse metal loads in rivers.
The new Prior Information Notice indicates the Authority is preparing the ground for a more detailed procurement. Other notices from 2025 illustrate how such programmes often develop in stages, from risk assessment and planning to works on the ground and long-term monitoring.
On 14th November 2025, Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority published a contract for Preliminary Contamination Assessments, starting with desk-based studies and moving to intrusive investigations if required. In August 2025, Gmina Miasto Zgierz in Poland sought a comprehensive environmental assessment and improvement plan for a former dye industry site through its Environmental Assessment and Improvement Plan.
Research-focused contracts are also shaping remediation strategy. A May 2025 Dutch notice for Soil Restoration Research aims to develop tools for sustainable forest soil restoration after reduced nitrogen deposition, explicitly to inform policymakers and managers on effective measures. Evidence reviews, such as the Environment Agency’s peatland project, play a similar role in setting standards and indicators before large-scale works proceed.
Once remediation moves on site, buyers often separate out specialist roles. In July and August 2025, Strömsunds kommun and Östersunds kommun in Sweden both procured consultancy services for Environmental Control Consultancy and Environmental Control for Land Remediation at remediation sites, focusing on oversight of excavation areas.
Other buyers are coupling physical works with ongoing treatment and compliance monitoring. In October 2025, LuxChemtech GmbH advertised a Groundwater Treatment Facility Project at a former glue factory, covering both construction and operation of the treatment plant, as well as monitoring treated groundwater and exhaust air.
Against that backdrop, the Mining Remediation Authority’s project is notable for combining stabilisation of mine wastes with explicit biodiversity goals from the outset. While the notice does not yet set out stages or contract structure, it clearly signals that future detailed tenders will sit within a wider family of remediation, monitoring and ecological recovery work seen across the UK and Europe.
The Prior Information Notice of 18th November 2025 flags the Authority’s intention to move towards procurement for the Mine Waste Remediation Project, but leaves detail for later. Suppliers and practitioners will be watching for future documents that spell out which river catchments are in scope, what forms of waste stabilisation are envisaged, and how water quality and biodiversity improvements will be evidenced.
Given the strong emphasis on diffuse metalliferous pollution and catchment-scale outcomes, the next steps are likely to attract interest from firms and research teams with experience in mine waste management, river restoration, water quality monitoring and ecological assessment. For now, the notice marks a clear statement that the legacy of abandoned metal mines, and their impact on rivers and wildlife, is rising up the UK remediation agenda.
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