Raw-materials policy has taken on growing significance against a backdrop of megatrends such as decarbonisation and digitisation. However, as well as safeguarding raw-material supplies the focus for today and the future must be on meeting the obligations and aspirations for effective sustainability. And this can only be done when post-mining issues are fully incorporated into this policy making process. Here we find that the current policy guidelines are continuing to prove deficient at a national and European level. The reuse of mining facilities - whose closure was all part of the original plan -, which is central to post-mining research, has in particular remained very much underdeveloped. Global investigations currently under way reveal how, and to what extent, disused mining infrastructure is being reused, or on the other hand is not being used at all.