Mining: creating positive legacies for regional areas

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In some areas of the Gloucester Valley, where rehabilitated land is being used for grazing, local farmers often comment that the quality of the rehabilitated pasture is better and more valuable than it was prior to mining activity.

Mining: creating positive legacies for regional areas

David Moult, CEO, Yancoal

The mining industry’s immediate and present benefits to regional areas are clearly and widely communicated. Mining is a critical generator of regional jobs, regional economic activity, and regional government revenue. This has been especially true in challenging times, such as throughout the COVID-19 pandemic or periods of prolonged drought. In these times, mining operations become an important economic lifeline for nearby communities as other sectors such as agriculture and tourism suffer temporary downturns. However, mining is not a ‘forever’ industry: mines inevitably close. What is often overlooked is the very real and lasting future legacies that mining companies can provide to regional communities and their economies after mining ends.

Long gone are the days when mining leaves behind scarred landscapes or abandoned mine workings. The industry recognises that it is merely a temporary steward of the land while resources are extracted. Part of the ‘whole of life’ mining process now requires careful and informed planning for post-mining land use, which requires consultation with environmentalists and ecologists, surrounding communities, and governments. In many aspects, the level of planning that contributes to the rehabilitation, eventual relinquishment and re-use of mined land is just as intensive as that involved in the mining process itself. The aim is to leave beneficial and sustainable assets for the generations that follow. There are many examples of how this has been achieved in varying forms across Australia, although the promotion of these achievements is usually the sole domain of industry groups and individual companies. Some recent examples include: Anglo American’s progressive rehabilitation since 2012 of its Dawson coal mine in Central Queensland, at which a 165-hectare area has now been fully rehabilitated and is being used by local farmers for cattle grazing; and the relinquishment of Lake Kepwari in Western Australia by Premier Coal, a Yancoal-operated mine, following the successful rehabilitation of an open cut coal mine into a recreational hub for water-skiing, wakeboarding, boating, fishing and swimming. In some regional areas mining is just the latest (and in some instances probably the last) industry that will serve as a steward of the land.

In some parts of the Gloucester Valley in New South Wales, the original industry last century was the logging of native forests, which was followed by dairy farming on the cleared land and finally, mining. On the conclusion of mining, the post-use intention is to return some of the land to native forest, therefore (ecologically) coming full circle. In some areas of the Gloucester Valley, where already-rehabilitated land is being used for grazing, local farmers often comment that the quality of the rehabilitated pasture is better and more valuable than it was prior to mining activity. As the transition to a lower carbon economy advances, a very likely and inevitable use of post-mining land will be the transformation of rehabilitated mine sites into renewable energy hubs. Indeed, many mining companies are already actively assessing how their sites, often located close to critical infrastructure such as electricity transmission lines, could be converted to pumped-hydro projects or wind and solar farms (or a combination of all three) once mining ends. This outcome will be a win on three fronts:

• for the sustainability of mining companies that pursue renewable energy business strategies into the future • for the climate • for the regional communities, which will benefit from a continuation of jobs and business opportunities, because another legacy for regional communities from mining should be skilled workforces and successful small businesses. Mining provides people with careers and livelihoods, and communities with prosperity. Over the next few years alone, mining will create almost 5,000 new apprenticeships across the country. Many mining companies have policies in place to ensure these opportunities are prioritised for residents of surrounding communities. In addition, many successful local businesses in regional areas with mining activity have been established to take advantage of the vast range of opportunities that the mines offer, from earthmoving, to cleaning, maintenance, and catering. You only have to visit the main street of a regional town like Mudgee or Blackwater to get a sense of the consistent economic activity that is generated just by the daily regulars who drop by for a coffee or a meal on their way to and from work at the local mines.

The challenge of the future is to ensure that after mining ends, regional communities continue to prosper and take advantage of these positive legacies the mines have generated. If former mine sites are progressively converted to renewable energy hubs, it is not unrealistic to consider that these skilled local workforces and established businesses can benefit and be sustained from the jobs and services required for the construction phases of these projects and their ongoing operation. Mining companies, communities and governments need to start having a conversation now to ensure regional areas can continue to take advantage of the lasting positive legacies that mining provides. 

Image: Lake Kepwari after view