Mine Rehabilitation

Summary

The transcript discusses the lingering issue of abandoned mines spread across Australia, highlighting the lack of rehabilitation efforts. With over 60,000 abandoned sites, only one mine in the last decade has been fully rehabilitated, posing environmental concerns and financial burdens on taxpayers. The transcript follows a journey to the coal town of Muswellbrook, examining different rehabilitation approaches and new government provisions pushing for better practices. It also highlights the need for a comprehensive parliamentary inquiry to ensure mining companies fulfill their rehabilitation promises, rather than leaving taxpayers to shoulder cleanup costs.

Highlights

• Muswellbrook is completely surrounded by coal mining activities, portraying a unique challenge for rehabilitation 🌍.
• BHP is now mandated to rehabilitate land immediately post-extraction in Muswellbrook ⚒️.
• Mangoola sets a new standard with rehabilitation starting before extraction 🚜.
• The government's slow pace in imposing regulations needs an overhaul 🚨.
• Australia's huge number of abandoned mines casts a toxic shadow ☢️.

Key Takeaways

• Australia faces a daunting challenge with 60,000 abandoned mines needing rehabilitation 🚧.
• Muswellbrook, a coal-centric town, is at the heart of mining rehabilitation efforts 🌿.
• New government regulations are pushing for immediate rehabilitation post-mining 🏗️.
• Mining companies often leave financial and environmental burdens for taxpayers 👥.
• A comprehensive review of mining practices is crucial to safeguard the environment 🌏.

Overview

Imagine driving through the vast stretches of rural Australia, only to be met with fields pockmarked by the remnants of years of mining. These sites symbolize the unseen cost of economic progress and signal the urgent need for rehabilitation. As the mining boom dwindles, these abandoned land scars reveal the pressing need for environmental restoration. With an estimated 60,000 abandoned mine sites, the scale of this challenge is immense.

In Muswellbrook, an intriguing dichotomy unfolds. This town, once primarily rooted in agriculture, is now encircled by active coal mines. The transcript takes us through contrasting approaches in land rehabilitation—highlighting efforts at Mt Arthur and Mangoola. Mangoola represents innovation, prioritizing ecological restoration even before extracting coal, ensuring that the land has a fighting chance to recover. Meanwhile, changes at Mt Arthur are propelled by recent government stipulations pushing for immediate post-mining rehabilitation.

The conversation culminates with a call for an essential parliamentary inquiry to assess Australia’s approach to mining rehabilitation. Only one site in NSW has managed to fulfill complete restoration promises. The transcript emphasizes the importance of establishing national standards to ensure mining companies clean up after themselves rather than leaving behind an environmental and financial mess for future generations to address. The spotlight is on ensuring a balanced approach where economic gains don't obliterate essential environmental stewardship.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Mine Rehabilitation Issues Australia is left with thousands of hectares of degraded and contaminated land due to its extensive mining history.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Government and Industry's Role and Challenges This chapter delves into the historical and ongoing issue of mine abandonment in Australia, which is highlighted as a significant challenge for both government and industry. Citing cases from Queensland, Victoria, and Western Australia (WA), the text notes that mine abandonment has been a persistent issue since the gold rush era. It is also highlighted that state government agencies struggle to identify even a single mine that has been fully rehabilitated, closed, and relinquished in the past decade. As a measure to manage potential future abandonment, Australian governments have allocated $10 billion in bonds to serve as financial assurance.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Case Study: Muswellbrook and Mt Arthur Mine Concerns exist about the adequacy of current measures.
• 01:30 - 02:00: Regulatory Evolution and Rehabilitation Requirements The chapter titled 'Regulatory Evolution and Rehabilitation Requirements' discusses the economic value of a fully laden train, which is over $1 million. It highlights the unique position of Muswellbrook, a town largely surrounded by coal mining activities, with only the railroad and river areas untouched. Historically, Muswellbrook was mainly an agricultural town.
• 02:00 - 03:00: Current Rehabilitation Efforts and Challenges The chapter titled 'Current Rehabilitation Efforts and Challenges' discusses the primary economic focus on coal with particular reference to major coal facilities in the area. It lists key power stations and coal mines including Lydel, Bayswater Drayton, Mt Arthur, Bengalla, and Mt Pleasant which is expected to commence operations later in the year. The chapter underlines Mt Arthur as the state's largest open cut coal mine.
• 03:00 - 04:00: Mangoola Mine's Rehabilitation Approach Mangoola Mine's active mining operations began in the 1960s and now cover an area exceeding 1066 hectares.
• 04:00 - 05:00: Rehabilitation Techniques and Remaining Challenges The chapter titled 'Rehabilitation Techniques and Remaining Challenges' discusses the significant operations of a large mining venture that employs over 1,000 people and contributes notably to state coal royalties. It touches upon the responsibility of the NSW, the former owner of Mt Arthur, in granting mining approvals and setting conditions for land rehabilitation post-mining.
• 05:00 - 06:00: Parliamentary Inquiry and Environmental Bonds This chapter discusses the regulations and requirements for mining companies to address the end-of-life phase of mines, particularly focusing on how the land is to be left after mining activities have concluded. It highlights the evolution of these regulations over time, noting that before the late 1980s, there were essentially no regulations governing the post-mining state of the land.
• 06:00 - 07:00: Challenges with Mine Rehabilitation Accountability The chapter discusses the evolving obligations in mine rehabilitation, beginning with meeting the requirements to restore endangered ecological communities and environments to their original state. It then transitions to an exciting new phase focused on enhancing the land's value post-rehabilitation. This might include creating additional job opportunities by finding alternative, productive uses for the land, thus adding economic benefits beyond merely restoring the environment to its previous condition.

Mine Rehabilitation Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 I want you to imagine thousands of hectares of degraded, contaminated land holes several kilometres long across rural Australia These are the scars of Australia's long mining history As the mining construction boom fizzles out what happens to the sites left behind? It's a somewhat murky picture A new report from the Australia Institute estimates there are close to 60,000 abandoned mines
• 00:30 - 01:00 across the country Some of those date back to the gold rush days The report warns mine abandonment is a common phenomenon citing recent examples in Queensland, Victoria and WA State government agencies could only name one mine that has been fully rehabilitated, closed and relinquished in the last ten years Australian governments have set aside $10 billion in bonds as insurance in case companies abandon the sites
• 01:00 - 01:30 There are concerns it's not enough Lateline's Ginny Stein and cameraman Ron Foley travelled to the NSW town of Muswellbrook home to the state's largest open cut coal mine and where two very different approaches to site rehabilitation are underway Every eight minutes, day and night a coal train moves through Muswellbrook
• 01:30 - 02:00 The onboard haul of a fully laden train is worth more than $1 million Muswellbrook is the only town of its size to be completely ringed by coal mining activity on all sides except the railroad and river Muswellbrook used to be a predominantly agricultural town
• 02:00 - 02:30 Now the main business is coal We've got the two power stations, Lydel and Bayswater Drayton, Mt Arthur and Bengalla and ultimately Mt Pleasant which will move into operation mid this year as well The state's largest open cut coal mine, Mt Arthur
• 02:30 - 03:00 began producing coal in the '60s Its active mining footprint now extends to more than 1066 hectares
• 03:00 - 03:30 There's no hiding it No, it's a very large operation It employs well over 1,000 people and would produce a significant part of the state's coal royalties The NSW, which once owned Mt Arthur, is responsible for granting mining approvals and laying down conditions for how land should be returned
• 03:30 - 04:00 Every mine has to look at the end of life of the mine and there are regulations and there are stipulations as to how that land will be left If you look at the phases, how has it changed over the decades? Well, prior to the late '80s There was virtually no regulation as to how the mined land had to be left
• 04:00 - 04:30 and then more and more stipulations So we had the requirement to rebuild those endangered ecological communities A requirement to put it back as it was And now we're moving into another phase which I think is exciting because it is the phase of "Well can we add value to that land?" Can we increase the number of jobs with that land, if we use it differently?
• 04:30 - 05:00 Currently less than 1/3 of the Mt Arthur mine site is under rehabilitation Originally it had four pits, it's now down to three but it does leave the largest pit in the valley presently under its present approvals So a lot of work needs to be done by the state government
• 05:00 - 05:30 the industry, particularly Mt Arthur of course, and the council to really get the size of that final landform void down Concern about the slow rate of rehabilitation resulted in the state imposing new consent provisions for the mine BHP is now required to rehabilitate land disturbed by mining as soon as possible A mine we have like this today wouldn't be acceptable
• 05:30 - 06:00 The mine is also required to shape its manufactured hills in a way that more closely resembles what was here before BHP declined our request to visit Mt Arthur but it did provide these photos to demonstrate its rehabilitation efforts They show the land's progress over 15 years The regrowth areas remain sparse and the hilltop flat
• 06:00 - 06:30 New mining is taking place in front of it It doesn't look particularly natural. It just looks like a big bread loaf No longer best practice What happens on these older type mines is the drainage comes straight down the hill that you can see behind us and goes into horizontal drainage lines and collects into a single drop structure and then goes down the balance of the hill Obviously you wouldn't see that in nature Best practice is really what's happening at Mangoola The challenge for the government is transitioning between the two
• 06:30 - 07:00 Mining giant Glencore started production at Mangoola to the west of Muswellbrook in 2011 The company invited Lateline to film its rehabilitation efforts which it believes exceed state government requirements Once that first seam is uncovered, we will remove that and then continue mining waste material until we uncover the next seam of coal Here, rehabilitation planning begins before
• 07:00 - 07:30 the first shovel of coal is dug up So what we're looking at here Ginny, this is a pit that we've mined out now We've taken out the coal that we've planned and we're in the process of filling it in now with waste overburden The company plans to relinquish this site once mining is done Something only one mine in NSW has achieved What we hope to do is to try to relinquish land progressively not just wait until the end of the mine life So with some of our more mature areas
• 07:30 - 08:00 we'll be looking at trying to relinquish that early and that's the aim You'd be a rare mine to relinquish wouldn't you, in NSW? Well look, it does happen It depends on the size of the operation We saw an opportunity here to do something We're quite blessed here because we're a fairly shallow mine So our dump profile is fairly low So it enabled us to to do a little bit more with contouring and developing natural landform at quite a palatable cost
• 08:00 - 08:30 So what we're walking through here is our oldest rehab So this was established in late 2011 Most people are really surprised that five or six years ago the area that we're standing in now was just a big hole in the ground There was a 30 to 40 metre deep open cut coal mine, and now you're surrounded by trees that are six to eight metres tall Bird boxes and tree trunks with hollows have been installed and natural water flows created It's going to take sort of a hundred years maybe
• 08:30 - 09:00 for natural hollows to develop So we need to fill that void at the moment for habitat that's being lost For that crucial nesting habitat I do all the bulk shape The "bulk shape" is I leave the final landform before the topsoil comes on to it Sometimes you'll get a design and "What was he thinking when he gave me this?" you know. With the little hollows and stuff but then you look back at the whole once you've done 50 hectares and it's like a natural farm. Rolling hills, gullies
• 09:00 - 09:30 It's all natural You've been in the earthmoving business a long time Yes Your job's generally to make things flat Yes and in mining, the general idea in mining is generally to get the dirt off as quickly as you can and it has been, where I've worked in other companies I've worked "Just get rid of the dirt" and then they deal with the dirt at the end Here, they put the dirt where it's needed in the final position, ready to push While much will be filled in
• 09:30 - 10:00 there will still be a 55 hectare hole left behind when mining is done here There are reasons of course to leave some very small voids to manage water quality and particularly the Hunter's catchment but we know that voids can be filled in There have been mine proposals, new mine proposals which propose to fill in the voids from the very get go So it can be done, it should be done and increasingly the community will expect it be done Last week a senate inquiry was announced
• 10:00 - 10:30 into mining rehabilitation following a motion put forward by the Greens and supported by Labor It will investigate how Australia is reparing mine sites and consider the environmental consequences For more I spoke earlier to Greens leader Richard Di Natale from Canberra Richard Di Natale, thanks for your time Why do we need this parliamentary inquiry into mining rehabilitation? Because we've got thousands of mines around this country that need to be rehabilitated
• 10:30 - 11:00 We've got existing mines that where companies have left insufficient bonds So what'll happen is, those companies will walk away, they'll leave a toxic legacy and the taxpayer will need to foot the bill for repairing those mines So it is absolutely critical that we ensure that we've got a full audit We've got national standards for how these mines should be rehabilitated and that the companies who make the mess clean it up when they're finished $10 billion in environmental bonds has been set aside
• 11:00 - 11:30 by various governments to deal with the scenario of mines not rehabilitating or companies not rehabilitating their mines properly Is that not enough, it seems like a lot of money? It seems like a lot of money but there are a hell of a lot of mines out there and the cost of rehabilitation is significant So part of the permit to get a mine off the ground is that you commit to making sure that you rehabilitate that mine when you're finished What happens is the bonds are often inadequate
• 11:30 - 12:00 When they do do the rehabilitation it's not done to an appropriate standard And then of course, you've got some companies who set themselves up in a way that they've got other shell companies They end up going bankrupt when the life of the mine's finished and they leave it up to the taxpayer to clean it up One of the things we discovered is it's quite hard to nail down exactly which mines are in operation and which mines are not How would you imagine addressing that? Well that's why we need the enquiry We need to have a comprehensive review of all
• 12:00 - 12:30 mines, both in operation, and we need to look at the historical evidence of those mines that have been used but not rehabilitated We should set up a national commissioner to make sure that we get to the bottom of what's required to be done And in the end it's the taxpayer who ends up footing the bill if this isn't done properly It amounts to a massive subsidy to the mining industry Many of these coal mines end up relying on the taxpayer to basically
• 12:30 - 13:00 subsidise their operations and we don't think that's fair