In 2017 we commissioned the rewrite of the national guideline for rehabilitating mined land. Published in 2019, it replaced a 2007 standard and sits on rehabilitation desks across the sector.
2017 to 2019Development
LaRSSA, Coaltech, MCSAThe partnership
R. HattinghProgramme lead
May 2019Published, with a 2022 soil covers companion
12 years
between the 2007 standard and its replacement
3 bodies
behind one standard: LaRSSA, Coaltech, the Minerals Council
1 companion
the 2022 soil covers guideline
Open
published for every mine, member or not
01
The problem
A 2007 standard for a 2020s problem
Rehabilitation is a legal obligation and the industry’s most public promise. Yet the national reference, the Minerals Council’s 2007 guidelines, was written before ten years of soils, stockpiling and vegetation research existed. Mines were rehabilitating to a standard the science had outgrown.
“LaRSSA was commissioned to update the existing Minerals Council South Africa 2007 Guidelines for the Rehabilitation of Mined Land.”
Coaltech Annual Report 2018/19, R. Hattingh
02
The research
Rewrite the standard, bank the decade
In September 2017 we commissioned the Land Rehabilitation Society of Southern Africa to rewrite the 2007 guidelines end to end. The rewrite folded in what the research had learned: how to stockpile soil without killing it, which species take on mined ground, how to plan land use before the dragline leaves. It was published in 2019 under the joint imprint of LaRSSA, Coaltech and the Minerals Council. In 2022 a companion guideline followed on engineered soil covers, the layer that keeps acid seepage in the ground where it belongs.
R. Hattingh
Programme lead. Rehabilitation and land use planning.
LaRSSA
The Land Rehabilitation Society of Southern Africa. Commissioned author.
Minerals Council SA
Custodian of the national guideline series.
The guideline family: the 2019 Land Rehabilitation Guideline and the soil cover framework that followed. From our 2020/21 Annual Report.
2019
the year the industry got a rehabilitation standard the science could stand behind.
03
The impact
Cited in closure plans we never see
A guideline earns its keep when strangers work to it. The 2019 guideline turns up in closure plans, environmental authorisations and audits across the coalfields, written by consultants who never sat in a Coaltech meeting. That is the reach we wanted, and it is why the guideline is open to everyone rather than locked behind membership. Rehabilitation only works if the whole industry rehabilitates to the same standard.
2007
The old standard
The Minerals Council publishes the original rehabilitation guidelines.
Sep 2017
The commission
We appoint LaRSSA to rewrite the guideline on the back of a decade of research.
May 2019
Published
The Land Rehabilitation Guideline for Surface Coal Mines goes out under three imprints.
2022
The companion
The soil covers guideline extends the family into cover design and seepage control.
The evidence. Every claim traces to a published report.
PDFLand Rehabilitation Guideline (LaRSSA), full guidelineWhat this report showsThe 2019 national guideline, complete.2019Open in the Library →
PDFGuideline for the Rehabilitation of Mined Land, Project 12.2What this report showsThe project report behind the published guideline.2019Open in the Library →
PDFSoil covers guideline: mitigating ARD seepage impactWhat this report showsDesign, construction and monitoring of engineered soil covers.2022Open in the Library →
PDFTask 12.1 Guideline for the Rehabilitation of Mined LandWhat this report showsThe original it replaced, kept for the record.2007Open in the Library →
Where this goes next
The standard meets its test at closure, when rehabilitated land is handed back. Related: Mine Closure. Wetlands. Farming with Mine Water.
