Mine rehab milestone
Government signs off on Wilkie Creek
A MAJOR environmental milestone has been achieved at Peabody Energy’s former Wilkie Creek mine, with the Department of Environment and Science formally certifying almost 90 hectares of the former mine site as fully rehabilitated.
Mining at Wilkie Creek, 40 km northwest of Dalby, ended in late 2013 and Peabody has rehabilitated 612 hectares of former mined land at the site.
Yesterday’s decision recognises the first 86.67 hectares of that area to be certified as “safe, stable, self-sustaining and nonpolluting”.
Peabody president George J Schuller Jr said the announcement highlighted the company’s commitment to rehabilitate former mining land to a productive post-mining land use and cemented its position as an industry leader in mine closure planning.
“It’s a great day for our company when we can say to local graziers and the residents of Western Downs communities that we’ve kept our promise and transformed an old mining pit at Wilkie Creek into productive grazing country,” Mr Schuller said.
“Peabody sees land rehabilitation as an essential part of the mining process. We understand that mining plays an important, but temporary role in the life of a region and that the land we mine must remain a community and economic asset long after last coal production.”
“I’m incredibly proud of the hard work that’s gone into achieving this first for our company.”
Neighbouring landholder and member of the Wilkie Creek Mine Closure Reference Group Neville Walton congratulated Peabody on its commitment to rehabilitation.
“It’s certainly not an easy task to backfill a 55-metre deep mine pit, level it off and establish healthy pasture that can sustain livestock, so I think it’s a credit to them,” Mr Walton said.
“We’ve always had an upfront honest line of communication with the company and that’s been the key to success.
“We started off very dubious, but Peabody kept persisting in planting grass and I think they’ve probably created an area comparable to what it was before.
“We’ve got a lot of cattle in here and when there’s a lot of grass they’re putting on 0.6-0.7 kilograms of weight per day. We’ll graze them here for three weeks to a month and then we’ll move them to another paddock. So, in terms of our grazing program this area is now a commercial asset to us which is great.”