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.

As 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 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

GLENCORE PROGRESSIVELY REHABILITATES ITS MINES, INCLUDING THE MANGOOLA SITE IN NSW.

REHABILITATION AT GLENCORE’S CLERMONT OPEN CUT COAL MINE IN QUEENSLAND.

some of the administrative burdens for the industry.”

For Glencore, mine rehabilitation is an important factor to sustaining positive relations with the communities in which it operates.

“We get our licence to operate from these communities and, in most cases, our employees and their families are part of these communities,” Glencore’s spokesperson says.

“We are proud of our track record of engaging with, and listening to, local communities and taking on board the feedback they provide.

“Local communities have input into the agreed final land use that forms part of our consent conditions, and our rehabilitation performance demonstrates the focus we put on leaving the land we mine in good condition for future generations to use.”

Anglo American is another mining major that has demonstrated a commitment to mine rehabilitation outcomes.

The miner has progressively rehabilitated its Dawson open cut metallurgical coal mine in Central Queensland since 2012 to turn the area into a zone for local farmers, including a dam for livestock.

Operations began at the Dawson mine, one of the oldest coal mining operations in Central Queensland, in 1961.

Cattle grazing has been conducted in Dawson’s rehabilitated area, along with the area being revegetated, since works began.

In August, Anglo American showed off its rehabilitation efforts at Dawson through a campaign with Minerals Council of Australia (MCA).

Anglo American metallurgical coal business chief executive officer Tyler Mitchelson says the company is aiming to achieve positive outcomes for the community through its mine rehabilitation efforts.

“We invest in innovative approaches to rehabilitate land, and we completed more than 400 hectares across our two open cut Australian sites last year,” Mitchelson says.

“Under our Sustainable Mining Plan, we direct our efforts to making sure that not only do we minimise impact, but that we seek to deliver positive and lasting environmental outcomes.”

Mitchelson has announced that more than $80 million will be spent on rehabilitating the Dawson mine between 2019 and 2023.

Last year, Anglo American partnered with heavy equipment provider Komatsu to launch their Growing Together partnership, which aims to return mined laned to use for agriculture.

The partnership began with the planting of 4000 trees at Dawson mine with a new tree planting event currently in the planning stage.

There are more than 80,000 active, inactive and unrehabilitated mines across Australia. Transforming mining operations back into pastural land is also a target for Glencore.

“At numerous operations we are using rehabilitation areas for agriculture and are actively looking at additional opportunities,” Glencore states.

“In Queensland, our whollyowned pastoral subsidiary, Colinta Holdings, grazes cattle on established rehabilitation areas at our Newlands, Rolleston and Collinsville operations.

“This cattle grazing improves the quality of pasture available by reducing excessive pasture growth and promoting fresh growth, while at the same time providing the disturbance needed to stimulate improved species diversity and cover on bare areas.

“In the New South Wales Hunter Valley, Colinta has also been involved in our cattle grazing trials at Liddell over a six-year period, which has demonstrated that cattle can be grazed on rehabilitated mined land at stocking rates at least equivalent to district averages.”

According to the NSW Minerals Council, the progressive rehabilitation of existing mines unlocks value for local communities sooner.

“By progressively rehabilitating disturbed land, mine owners ensure this important component is not left to the final stages of mining, thereby enabling areas to become available for beneficial post-mining uses much sooner,” the NSW Mining Council spokesperson says.

“Industry prioritises the rehabilitation of areas that have the greatest impact on visual amenity (e.g. areas facing townships, residences, or the highway); areas with the potential to generate dust leaving the site; and areas that are important for biodiversity.”

Last year, Glencore’s Westside open cut coal mine in New South Wales was successfully rehabilitated back into bushland after operations ceased in 2012.

Glencore’s Ulan coal mine in New South Wales was also rehabilitated into a habitat for native plants and animals.

“The industry also continues to research beneficial reuse of land and residual voids post-mining, with domestic and international examples including agriculture, forestry, power generation, recreation and tourism, and water supply,” the NSW Mining Council spokesperson adds.

Australia is one of the world’s largest exporters of coal globally, and with a wide range of mines being progressively rehabilitated, these sites could become important components to other major industries that play their part in the country’s economic success. AM