When the mine closed it left 70 million tonnes of tailings and 320 million tonnes of waste rock that require remediation to protect the health of humans, land, water, and wildlife. With the bankruptcy of Anvil Rang the clean up bill for the mine and tailings pond fell to the federal government. Early estimates put the cost at $450–590M over 40 years. In 2016 the federal Treasury reported that between $250 million and $350 million had been spent maintaining the mine site, without starting cleanup. The $40 million annual costs are to run pumps to prevent the tailings from breaching the dams and the construction and operations of three water treatment plants. The cleanup itself could cost a further $1-billion.