What should we do with Australia’s 50,000 abandoned mines

Wandering around Australia, you might want to watch your step the country currently has more
than 50,000 abandoned mines. Some represent a significant threat from contamination; others
may pose safety risks; and still others may be losing their value as cultural heritage.

Recently experts met in Brisbane for the four day life of mine conference to explore how to leave
positive legacies from mining. This included exploring the challenges of, and long term solutions
for, our abandoned mines.But cleaning up old mines is no simple matter. More new mines, time
to address old mines. Prime minister Tony Abbott has declared Australia open for business,
promising to make it easier to get mining projects through assessment processes and minerals out
of the ground by stream-lining environmental approvals. Clive Palmer know all too well that,
having been hit last year with a government order to clean up 300 abandoned coal-drilling sites,
old mines represent liabilities.

In 2012, the NSW Auditor General declared that “derelict mines may represent the largest
category of contamination liability for the state”. He also noted that the “derelict mines program
has many thousands of hectares of degraded and contaminated land where mining companies
abandoned mines without cleaning up or stabilising the sites.” And also in 2012, the Queensland
Commission of Audit estimated that Queensland’s 15,000 abandoned mines are a A$1 billion
liability on the state.

Australia already has a national abandoned mine policy, although it has yet to be formally
implemented by state and federal governments. Until it is, we cannot expect states or the mining
industry to strategically prioritise remediation of old mines. An historical problem When a mine
closes now, it’s required to be safe, stable, non-polluting and have sustainable land uses. But
regulations in the past were much weaker and community expectations lower, which has given
rise to legacy of mines which do not meet today’s standards. Abandoned mines are largely
historic, have no clear ownership and rarely meet current community and regulatory mine
rehabilitation and closure expectations. Australian governments and the community have become
responsible for these mines’ management. For example, the Queensland Flood Commission
Inquiry revealed that approximately 12,000 out of 15,000 abandoned mines in Queensland are
located on private land and consequently are not considered the responsibility of government.
Where abandoned mines pose safety impacts governments may undertake shaft capping
programs. Where there are agricultural productivity impacts downstream of polluting sites,
governments and communities may be engaged in community directed research, as at Mount
Morgan in Queensland. But old mines don’t have to be a liability; instead they can become an
asset. Australia’s national policy for old mines recommends “valuing abandoned mines”. This
could include further mineral extraction via secondary mining such as reprocessing tailings,
industrial archaeological heritage conservation and tourism, unique habitats for biodiversity
enhancement, collaborative research into innovative solutions to contamination problems which
could guide the broader industry and indigenous and other employment and training
opportunities for regional Australia. The book 101 things to do with a hole in the
ground describes new futures created from old mines with some Australian examples included.
Here there is a focus not only on the environment, but also on people. In east Germany, the IBA-
SEE project transformed an abandoned brown coal mining region into a new landscape focussed
on creating new economies. Mine pits were filled with water to form recreational lakes. Key
heritage features were conserved, in concert with environmental and engineering restoration
works. The Heartlands project in Cornwall, England, tapped into European Union and British
Lottery funding and multi-stakeholder collaboration to conserve mining heritage in this World
Heritage listed area. This was integrated with new businesses and recreation in a central
community site. An abandoned slate mine in Wales was recently converted into a trampoline
park.

Currently, each state and territory has developed its own approach to managing abandoned mine
sites, with a national policy developed in 2010 under COAG. Some states are doing well.
A recent web-review from the University of Queensland’s Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation,
presented at the Life of Mine conference, found that Western Australia has a very detailed
inventory available to the public. Transparency is a very important aspect of mature governance
when managing whole jurisdictions of abandoned mines, as demonstrated in British Columbia,
Canada. But in many states there are legislative black holes when it comes to managing the
environmental impacts of abandoned mines. In Queensland, for example, neither the state
Environmental Protection Act (1994), nor the federal Environmental Protection and Biodiversity
Conservation Act (1999), address mitigation of environmental impacts associated with
abandoned mines. The review also found that Australia’s abandoned mines program maturity
could be accelerated by drawing upon leading practices overseas. Particularly in Canada, where
the National Orphaned and Abandoned Mine Initiative provides support across federal and
provincial jurisdictions through an advisory panel of industry, government and the community.
Abandoned mines give people a bad impression of the mining industry and governments tasked
with regulation of the current industry. Leading practices overseas demonstrate that successful
abandoned mine programs work together with the mining industry, governments and
communities to fix the problem.
Vocabulary
1. Abandoned Mines
2. coal
3. Rehabilitation
4. Cultural heritage
5. Teritory
6. mining

a. A mine or quarry which is no longer producing or operational

b. an area that is controlled or becomes territorial from a sovereignty.
c. is part or all of the stages of activities in the context of research, management and
operation of minerals or coal which includes general investigation, exploration, feasibility
studies, construction, mining, processing and refining, transportation and sales, and post-
mining activities.
d. an effort to restore, repair and improve the condition of damaged land so that it can
function optimally,
e. non-lined objects or attributes which are the identity of a society or people inherited from
previous generations
f. one of the fossil fuels

Question
1. how many abandoned mines place in Australia ?
2. where the IBA-SEE project take place ?
3. who was declared Australia open for mines business ?
4. when national policy developed by COAG ?
5. what is the meaning of abandoned mines?
Answer
Vocabulary

1. A
2. F
3. D
4. E
5. B
6. C

Question

1. More than 50.000 abandoned mines

2. East Germany
3. Prime minister tony abbott
4. 2010
5. A mine or quarry which is no longer producing or operational