Community members will be able to explore Glencore’s Mangoola Open Cut coal operation from the comfort of their own home thanks to a cutting-edge 360° virtual reality tour.
The virtual reality tour is one of the highlights featured in Glencore’s recently released Coal Mine Rehabilitation Update.
Glencore Coal’s Director of Environment and Community, John Watson, said the virtual tour was an exciting opportunity for people to experience and explore Mangoola Mine, including the site’s industry-leading rehabilitation.
“At Glencore, we firmly believe that responsible mining includes a strong commitment to environmental stewardship,” John said.
“Despite common misconceptions, we progressively rehabilitate mined land which means we begin rehabilitating as soon as practical.
“We’re very excited to be able to showcase our Mangoola operation and its progressive rehabilitation using virtual reality technology.
“This rehabilitated land is home to a wide range of native flora and fauna, including over 70 woodland bird species, wetland frogs, a diverse range of mammals and reptiles and more than 200 species of trees and plants, including tiger orchids and grass trees.”
A spokesperson for Glencore said the 360 virtual tours of the Mangoola coal mine allow the company to take the mine anywhere.
“If you’ve never visited a coal mine, now you have the opportunity with the click of a mouse by logging onto a device or pulling on a virtual reality headset,” the spokesperson said.
“Whether it’s school students, university students curious about a career in mining, government officials or regulators – we can take these headsets anywhere to explain and showcase the work we’re doing.
“People are often surprised to learn that planning for rehabilitation begins well before mining starts.
“With these 360 tours, we have been able to showcase the planning our environmental teams go through in order to deliver first-class rehabilitation outcomes.”
Along with the 360 virtual tours, John said the Coal Mine Rehabilitation Update features case studies on Glencore’s Rolleston and Newlands Open Cut operations in Queensland and Liddell and Baal Bone operations in New South Wales.
Ten of Glencore’s rehabilitated areas have received formal sign-off from the Queensland and NSW Governments.
“We aim to be an industry leader when it comes to returning mined land to safe, stable and self-sustaining ecosystems and we’re proud to showcase that in our latest Update.”
