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At present, the draft updated Guideline is being compiled.
On its completion, it will be distributed to the LaRSSA
membership base for comment. A work session with Coaltech
team will them be held to present the draft Guideline content,
resulting in the updated Guideline finalisation.
Importantly, as in the 2007 Guideline, the updated Guideline
will be specifically for coal mines - open pit and underground
operations. It will also not cover rehabilitation of coal mine-
related waste facilities such as waste rock dumps and/or
tailings dams. The focus will remain on achieving safe, stable
and functioning landscapes that have productive (ecological,
agricultural and/or socio-economic post-mining land uses).
Once the ‘overarching guideline’ has been suitably updated,
there is opportunity to compile a specific guideline to address
rehabilitation challenges on coal mine-related waste facilities.
Furthermore, this could be extended to compile commodity-
specific land rehabilitation guidelines, such as for gold mines.
However, this would need further thought and discussion,
possibly outside the Coaltech domain.
Coaltech and the LaRSSA team would like to see this updated
Land Rehabilitation Guideline become the key rehabilitation
handbook for coal-mining land rehabilitation practitioners.
