Reforms touted by Queensland government would mandate targets and ratios for progressive rehabilitation of land

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Adani may be forced into an expensive revamp of its Queensland coal plans if mining rehabilitation reforms touted by the Palaszczuk government prevail after the next state election.

The environmental group Lock The Gate says Adani now plans a “lowest cost” program to rehabilitate its Carmichael mine, including waiting 39 years to start on rehabilitation of huge open-cut pits that will leave more than 3,300 hectares “completely un-rehabilitated”.

The miner would wait 10 years before acting on waste rock dumps that produce acid, and permanently divert 88km of streams, according to the analysis.

An Adani spokesman rejected the claims as false, saying: “My understanding is we are engaged in progressive rehabilitation once we start work.”

But the spokesman conceded that Adani’s plans may have to change under reforms touted by the Queensland government for next July – which hinge on Labor winning an election by January or the Liberal National party following through.

Coal giants abandon unprofitable mines, leaving rehabilitation under threat Read more

Labor has flagged mandated targets and ratios for progressive rehabilitation, which would force the repairing of land much earlier in the life of a mine.

It would also seek bigger clean-up bonds to cover cost of rehabilitation in case of a miner’s collapse.

About 80% of voters in four key Queensland seats agreed Adani should provide an “upfront cash bond” to guarantee rehabilitation if it shut down, according to a ReachTel poll commissioned by Lock the Gate.

Most large miners cover their bonds through bank guarantees that cost them a modest annual fee.

The survey on 2 May involved more than 2,400 residents across Cooper, Mount Ommaney, Mundingburra and South Brisbane.

The Adani spokesman said: “Who knows what the reforms will be and what will be passed.

“Our central element, just the same as every other mining company in this state, is to abide by the laws of the land as they are. If the laws change, we change.”

Rick Humphries, of Lock the Gate, said Adani’s proposal as it stood would bequeath and “enormous, dangerous legacy for Queensland”, leaving “a fundamentally altered and degraded landscape with a diminished economic and ecological value”.

Humphries, a former mining industry environmental consultant, said Adani’s current rehabilitation plans did not “even come close to meeting mining industry standards and commitments, here or internationally”.

He said if the state government under its reforms dictated the rehabilitation of land after disturbance on a “one-to-one ratio”, it would mean a radical, costly revision of plans for Adani.

“The production sequence of the whole mine plan, the physical mine plan, how they move dirt around, which is the expensive bit, might have to be revised if the government enforces leading practice,” he said.

Humphries said the government could simply go “back to the future” by applying standards such as in 1987, when the mines department ordered the mine owner Lemon Grove Investments not to leave more than 80 hectares of land disturbed.

Adani may face fine over sediment released in floodwaters after Cyclone Debbie Read more

He said that approach “somehow got diluted” and taxpayers had been increasingly exposed to mines abandoned when owners went bust and their bonds did not cover the clean-up.

“What they were doing in 1987 is a recipe to fix the problem and they should apply it,” he said.

The environment minister, Steven Miles, said the new regime – now the subject of a discussion paper – for mining rehabilitation would apply to all existing and future mines.

“For the first time mines will be expected to progressively rehabilitate as land becomes available for rehab, and their performance will be audited and publicly reported,” Miles said.

“Their financial assurance will also accurately reflect the cost to rehabilitate the amount of disturbance caused.

“These next-generation laws will ensure taxpayers are no longer left to foot the bill for failed mines or stranded assets.”