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Plotting a future for mining towns when the machines fall silent

A Commonwealth-funded research centre will look for ways to save mining towns

Mar 24, 2020, updated Mar 25, 2020
Cornwall's Project Eden has been turned from an old mine into a popular tourist park.

Cornwall's Project Eden has been turned from an old mine into a popular tourist park.

Australia was facing the closure of about 180 mines in the next decade, many of which are in Queensland’s Bowen Basin and Mount Isa, with no real plan to deal with it.

But a Commonwealth-funded research centre, led by the University of Queensland and the University of WA, has been granted $135 million over 10 years to find a solution and predicts it can provide more than $2.4 billion in benefit by viewing he closures as an agent for regional development.

It claims hundreds of new job opportunities could also flow for regional communities by delivering a sustainable post-mining life for the land.

The new CRC said there were 120 abandoned mines on the State Government’s books with a liability of $7 billion.

UQ Sustainable Minerals Institute’s professor Anna Littleboy said new mines were having difficulty getting approvals because they had not demonstrated an effective way of closing and relinquishing the sites after their economic mining life.

“We have very few examples where mines have been closed and relinquished and have had a long term, positive legacy,’’ she said.

She said it was not just about land rehabilitation but finding a positive legacy for the land.

The poster child for their work was the Eden Project in Cornwall, UK, where a mine was turned into a popular tourist park, while in Mongolia a depleted mine now grows highly prized black roses for the US market.

“As we get more aware of the long-term sustainability of projects there is a growing market out there we estimate at $200 million for people providing closure and relinquishment services,’’ she said.

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“Australian business can lead in that market and there is a very significant potential export return to Australia.

“It is likely it will change the cost profile, but if you look around the world the mining companies are saying social performance is the number one issue they need to work on to get right. You do need to look at how your business interfaces with other stakeholders and with might happen in the future.’’

Demonstrations sites will be set up around Australia to show where the benefits can be found and Dr Guy Boggs from CSIRO’s Transformations in Mining Economies CRC said the research centre had the potential to create hundreds of new opportunities and regional jobs through the implementation of restoration activities and increased supply of closure and post-closure products and services.

CSIRO senior scientist Dr Jason Kirby said the scale of investment across community, government and industry would have major benefits for regional Australia, with several large mines reaching their end and closing in the near future.

 

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