ENVIRONMENT
GREENER OUTCOMES FOR OLD MINES THE MINING INDUSTRY IS ENSURING THAT MINES FROM THE PAST TURN INTO OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE FUTURE THROUGH STRINGENT REHABILITATION PROCESSES.
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s environmental, social and governance (ESG) expectations continue to rise, mining companies must ensure they have mapped out an effective mine rehabilitation plan before turning over soil. Deloitte’s 2021 Tracking the Trends report outlines that ESG has become a vital aspect to mining company’s commitment to local communities and stakeholders. According to the report, strong governance at a mining company can be reflected in their commitment to ESG, which is key to continue receiving stakeholder support. “Although most mining companies understand the imperative to put effective controls into place, weak governance can result in significant missteps, and potentially cause companies to unwittingly breach not only their regulatory mandates, but also their commitments to investors, communities and other critical stakeholders,” the report states. “Beyond resulting in a loss of the social licence to operate, this can lead to irreparable reputational damage,
lawsuits, community unrest and plummeting market values.” Many of Australia’s mining companies have doubled down on rehabilitation efforts as part of their ESG commitments. This is due to Australia’s already strong approach towards regulating the rehabilitation of mine sites to ensure responsible mining practices are undertaken. The country’s largest coal producer, Glencore, highlights how it can achieve promising rehabilitation outcomes at its coal mines. By actively rehabilitating its sites during mining operations, Glencore is integrating its environmental commitments while producing coal. “Glencore plans for rehabilitation at a very early stage of each coal mine’s life,” a Glencore spokesperson tells Australian Mining. “With our contemporary mines – the mines we have built ourselves – this takes place before production begins. “We then incorporate rehabilitation into daily and annual plans to ensure the work is adequately resourced, budgeted and delivered. “In addition to being efficient, we
find this approach is also very cost effective as it avoids the need for costly or unforeseen remedial work late in a mine’s cycle and minimises the impacts of unexpected or unplanned closures.” Glencore operates 25 mines across New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. This includes 17 coal mining operations in New South Wales and Queensland. The company received a certification for rehabilitating 138 hectares of the Newlands open cut coal mine in Queensland in June. Newlands became the first operation in the Bowen Basin to achieve a rehabilitation certification of coal mine overburden spoil in 2017. “Since the start of 2017, Glencore’s Australian coal operations have rehabilitated more than 5200 hectares of previously mined land,” Glencore’s spokesperson says. “As of 1 January 2021, we’ve rehabilitated more than 20,000 hectares in total, which is equivalent in size to almost the entire city of Sydney. “Our final rehabilitation outcomes meet the post-mining land uses agreed with community and government, such
GLENCORE PROGRESSIVELY REHABILITATES ITS MINES, INCLUDING THE MANGOOLA SITE IN NSW.
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as self-sustaining native ecosystems, agricultural use or other suitable purposes.” The Newlands mine produced 3.5 million tonnes of saleable coal in 2020, while progressive rehabilitation was undertaken. New South Wales, which updated its rules on mining rehabilitation in July, requires miners to show plans for progressive rehabilitation along with annual reports on rehabilitation outcomes. “The vast majority of mines in NSW have already been meeting the new requirements announced by the Deputy Premier (John Barilaro), initiating rehabilitation work at the same time as mining commences,” a NSW Minerals Council spokesperson says. “We think the government’s new rules encapsulate well what is generally already taking place and strike the right balance between streamlining the processes and ensuring that the worldclass rehabilitation requirements here in NSW are protected. “The new compliance and reporting reforms provide streamlined and consistent conditions that will simplify
