Mine rehabilitation is an ongoing program designed to restore the physical, chemical and biological quality or potential of air, land and water regimes disturbed by mining to a state acceptable to the regulators and to post-mining land users.
In NSW, mining occurs in many different environmental and land use contexts. This will mean different rehabilitation approaches according to the geographic region and its specific environmental and land use planning characteristics. The aims for successful and sustainable rehabilitation include a contextually harmonious landform with low soil erosion risk and little or no maintenance for drainage systems.
Mining rehabilitation can play a significant role in complementing catchment-wide strategies for biodiversity and soil conservation, as well as enhancing agricultural productivity, water management and salinity management programs. Specific examples of rehabilitation initiatives that demonstrate the links with sustainability include landform and drainage design, species selection, complex community rehabilitation targets, and co-ordinated regional rehabilitation planning.
Mining operations are expected to ensure continual improvement in rehabilitation practices and to apply current best practice. Rehabilitated land should be compatible with the established land fabric and/or consistent with pre-mining land capability, and should be of use or value to the community. Proposals to return rehabilitated land to a use other than that of its pre-mining phase can be accepted by the Department of Primary Industries-Mineral Resources if the alternative is shown to be more suitable and is consistent with the provisions of relevant planning instruments.
The costs of rehabilitation are required to be fully met by the titleholder and they must lodge a security deposit to ensure rehabilitation will be progressed through to mine closure – for more information on security bonds, see Ensuring future rehabilitation.
For more information on mining rehabilitation see or order a copy of the Mine Rehabilitation Handbook and The Synoptic Plan – Integrated Landscapes for Coal Mine Rehabilitation in the Hunter Valley of NSW.