Dr Guy Boggs, CEO of the Cooperative Research Centre for Transformation in Mining Economies (CRC TiME) this week visited stakeholders in Brisbane with program leader Associate Professor Bryan Maybee to assess progress on a Queensland-first project.
Dr Boggs said it was important to take the opportunity to strengthen collaboration towards unlocking the potential economic, social and environmental benefits which can flow from post-mine land use.
“enviroMETS Queensland is making great inroads in demonstrating the benefits of transformative post mining land use to support future policy reform. This week has been an opportunity to explore how to harness joint resources and expertise better.
enviroMETS brings an intimate knowledge of the Queensland policy framework and specific conditions, along with strong government and industry connections which complement CRC TiME’s national perspective and reach – delivering 40 projects with upwards of $30 million in value since 2020.
“Existing remediation policies focus on returning mined land to previous conditions but do not traditionally consider options for wider net benefit outcomes. Innovative thinking into ways to reuse or repurpose this land and assets could have a lasting positive impact on for regional communities and the environment.”
In the past six months, enviroMETS has generated more than $550,000 in funding and in-kind support from a range of industry, regional development, and local government entities to support its work – in addition to $750,000 in seed funding from the Queensland government.
This has already allowed work to significantly progress on its development of a way to assess the relative value of different business cases consistently and robustly for each mine site under consideration – balancing the values of residual minerals, economic reuse, environmental biodiversity, cultural and social considerations to allow very different options to be assessed side-by-side.
This Business Case Comparison Tool will soon be tested to up to five pilot sites in key mining regions drawn from an already developed long list of possibilities. This pilot site analysis will involve a range of regional stakeholders in a process to determine what their future could look like.
The work has already attracted the attention of global experts including the UK Land Trust which oversees mining remediation across the British Isles, proponents of the USA’s Good Samaritan Remediation of Abandoned Hardrock Mines Act of 2024, and Secondmuse (a leading global impact and innovation company that works with communities focused on climate, equity, and technology innovation).
enviroMETS CEO Allan Morton said “The work CRC TiME is supporting enviroMETS to do has huge implications for Queensland, with independent assessments suggesting it could generate an additional $1.14b annually in regional economic uplift. Queensland stands at a crossroads with 53 mines expected to close in the next five years, on top of the more that 1,200 already abandoned.
“We have the opportunity to embrace a new and better future – but we must think about legacy mining assets differently to do so. Something as simple as allowing existing mines to quarry overburden for the construction industry rather than relying on separate quarries each with its own additional environmental impact could deliver major environmental benefit under the right conditions.”
Dr Boggs said CRC TiME’s work on the project would draw on its broader portfolio, including examination of different tenure frameworks to support diversification, natural capital assessment, development of regional economic forecasting and planning tools and testing collaborative approaches to assessing post-mine land use options.’
The collaboration between enviroMETS and CRC TiME could support a transformative PMLU process which, once proved up, could support wider change across Australia and potentially the world.
CRC TiME is supported by the Australian Government Department of Industry, Science and Resources Cooperative Research Centre Program.
ENDS
Interviews or more information:
enviroMETS Executive Director Allan Morton is available for interview. Please contact David Donohue at davidd@qccn.com.au to arrange or for more information.
CRC TiME Chief Executive Officer Dr Guy Boggs is available for interview. Please contact Jillian D’Urso at jillian.durso@crctime.com.au to arrange or for more information.
Publishable images are also available on request via either Jillian or David.