Glencore’s Westside open cut coal site in the NSW Lower Hunter has received Government certification for a section of its rehabilitated mined land, a first for the State’s coal industry under contemporary mine rehabilitation criteria.

The Government sign-off on 38 hectares of the rehabilitation – equivalent to more than 60 football fields – means the rehabilitation of these former mining areas has met all rehabilitation objectives and closure criteria set out by the Department of Planning and Environment, the Resources Regulator and the Division of Resources and Geoscience.

The Westside open cut mine, near Wakefield on the north-western shores of Lake Macquarie, produced coal for domestic power generators between 1992 and 2012.

Westside Environment and Community Manager, Ben Clibborn, said the mine had maintained a very strong focus on progressive rehabilitation during its operations and set a high standard under rigorous criteria being applied to mine closure.

“The focus on progressive rehabilitation through the operational phase meant final rehabilitation of the mine was completed in April 2020, just two months after mining finished,” Ben said.

“The site has been returned to bushland consisting of native vegetation communities that are characteristic of the local environment and landform type.

“Our ongoing monitoring had shown that natural ecosystem functions were returning, with recent surveys identifying 69 native fauna species in the rehabilitation, including 11 threatened species,” he continued.

Ben said the group were pleased to reach a point at which the area had been accepted by Government as meeting rehabilitation completion criteria.

The certification for Westside follows a similar first for coal mine rehabilitation at Glencore’s Newlands operations in Queensland’s Bowen Basin.

Glencore’s Land and Property Manager, Nigel Charnock, said further areas of rehabilitation at Westside were being prepared for sign-off assessment, as well as areas at Ulan Coal operations in the State’s mid-west.

“Planning for rehabilitation at all Glencore open cut operations starts as early in the mine life as possible; with our contemporary mines this takes place before first coal is mined,” Nigel explained.

“Rehabilitation is then incorporated into daily mine plans and annual plans to ensure the work is adequately resourced, budgeted and delivered.

“These annual plans include targeted areas for disturbance, shaping and seeding for the budget year ahead, as well as forecasts for rehabilitation across the life of mine to minimise the area of rehabilitation required at the end of mining,” Nigel continued.

A comprehensive view of the rehabilitation work at Westside can be found on their website.

IMAGE | Local open cut coal site receives certification for a section of rehabilitated mined land.