Many of Queensland’s operating mines have reached or are approaching the end of their productive life in the coming decades. As the 1200 or so abandoned mine sites attest, successful mine closure or economic post mining outcomes are historically rare. There are many more mines that will close operations in the next decade.

enviroMETS (Qld) Limited has been established to find innovative ESG solutions and sustainable ways to make mining impacted land valuable to its future custodians. This Mission recognises the diverse range of challenges that can be overcome by adopting a collaborative approach to technical innovation, fresh thinking about repurposed land use and new land remediation methods.

As an independent industry led, not-for-profit company, it facilitates research activities, shares knowledge, identifies solutions to problems, coordinates projects and provides an innovation eco-system for its participants.

We are initially seeking a number of regional Queensland abandoned or impending closure mine sites to establish commercially sound demonstration Projects, where our research, innovative SME suppliers, government agencies and industry corporates can collaborate to recommercialise or repurpose and remediate.

Such sites will bring together more than one of our Expertise Streams to create a sustainable environmentally and socially sound solution that benefits a wide stakeholder group. Engaging industry, government, researchers and local communities.

There is considerable evidence of a lack of appreciation of affects in past, and more recent mismanagement of mine waste rock which mobilize acidity, metal (loid)s, and other contaminants, and thereby negatively affect downstream environments. Acid rock drainage and mine affected water provides many research challenges and opportunities.

Mount Morgan was mined for over 100 years leaving a heritage site, that also displays issues and challenges of acid rock drainage that were unknown in earlier times. Now we are developing technologies to deal with the residual impact in parallel with its re-commercialisation potential.

The very public failure of large Tailing Storage Facilities (TSF)s put a lot of focus on the geotechnical engineering practices, design and monitoring of dams. The concept of slurry tailings transport and their long-term safe storage is challenged.

TSFs vary on content, construction and capacity widely, as does their inherent risk and impact of a failure event. enviroMETS Qld will develop a recognised group of SME firms, academics, and expert consultants to provide a cluster of capability for the industry to develop new strategies, technologies and methods for tailings handling and storage.

Mine closure and relinquishment offer many challenges with rehabilitation and relinquishment. Planning for closure and rehabilitation, or secondary commercialisation, early in the mining lifecycle is likely to yield more cost-effective results than treating it late when economics have deteriorated.

enviroMETS Qld is identifying project opportunities to work with an expanded group of interested parties to under feasibility work to repurpose and remediate abandoned mine land.

Whereas the Chariah site near Charters Towers is less complex, with an easier solution. It is in the Department of Resources AMLP ‘Care & Maintenance’ program. It has potential as a test or demonstration site for repurposing and associated remediation.

Historical, cultural, social, environmental, educational or economic value of abandoned mines are considered when developing management and/or remediation plans.
enviroMETS Qld feasibility process will involve facilitating planning workshops with government agencies, local community engagement, technical collaborations, research on reuse and remediation, and improvements in land use, rehabilitation design of vegetation and landform.

There is ample history of poor, or lack of, mine planning that has left us with difficult to manage legacies. Similarly, there are opportunities offered by new processing technologies and essential mineral demand that could be exploited had waste rock or tailings logistics been better planned.

As the re-purposing of the Kidston site demonstrates, early planning could have embedded components of its different second life as a pumped hydro facility into the mine operations as they progressed.

Over time processes and technologies available for mineral processing, dewatering, ore sorting has advanced to manage lower grade ores and reprocessing of tailings and waste rock.

There are a range of new innovative technologies that can be used to liberate and separate critical metals from mining and processing waste. Extraction of any metal value from tailings is contingent on detailed mineralogical characterisation.

The re-commercialisation of Mt Carbine was enabled by new technology, the x-ray ore sorters. They are now able to reprocess what was waste rock efficiently to recover tungsten. The resultant waste rock is valuable as construction aggregate.

We will pursue, facilitate and promote collaborative projects that enable re-commercialisation. In-so-doing the participants will be able to improve the long-term residual impact of mining.

Within and beyond government, mining now has an extended range of stakeholders, more so with increasing attention on ESG outcomes and the visibility available with social media. This has given rise to more regulations, at multiple levels, together with compliance inspection and reporting obligations.

Amidst this the mining industry is striving to be and be seen as good corporate citizens. Increased governance, policy & regulatory requirements have been implemented in response to past behaviour and elevated community expectations. Many impose significant unproductive costs on industry.
enviroMETS Qld has a strong interest in contributing to achieve a net best sustainable long-term outcome for multiple stakeholders, industry, government and community. We are looking at projects where well-intended or reactive legislation is not achieving desirable outcomes for industry participants and mining affected communities.

Modelling geological formations underground is challenging due to the lack of direct visibility and cost of exploratory sampling. AI algorithms are being applied to improve geological estimations, fusing together a variety of dense and sparse data from different sources.

AI is being used in maintenance prediction and response, accident and injury avoidance, environmental impact including ventilation, pollution and water management, and autonomous vehicle management.

Robotic drill rigs make holes in the rock, which is filled with explosives to break up the rock for excavation. They use GPS, obstacle detection, and advanced auto-drilling to move and dig independently.

Autonomous vehicles (haul truck and rail trains) can provide increased performance and reliability, as well as allowing operations to be performed where it would be otherwise too hazardous for human operators.