Money, Mining and Sustainable Landscapes

8/7/2019 Money, Mining and Sustainable Landscapes

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Dr Geoff SlaughterProgram Coordinator

Bachelor of Accounting and Sustainable BusinessBachelor of Commerce

School of Accounting, Economics & FinanceUniversity of Southern Queensland


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Coal mining is a major financial contributor to the Qld and Australian

economies (Approx 6.7 Billion per annum in export earnings)

The downside is it has large impacts on the environment

1) extraction landscape disturbance and carbon emission from

transport

2) use greenhouse gas emissions

3) quality of landscape is never as good post mining regardless of

quality of rehabilitation.

In the Bowen basin land goes from being relatively flat to a rolling

landscape. Underground aquifers are usually lost down to the depthwhere mining stops. As a consequence aquifers below this level can be

also be substantially changed.


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Land use in the Bowen Basin prior tomining is predominantly cattle grazingwith some crops such as wheat andsorghum.

Miners drill for core samples to seewhere the coal is and if it is viable tomine


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Land is cleared and stick raked. Topsoil isremoved and stored ready for rehabilitation.Mining then commences.


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To rehabilitate the mined land, stored topsoilis returned and then planted with Buffel Grass( enchrus ciliaris) to stabilise the soil andprevent erosion. In addition to native treeplantingsAcacia salicina trees self seed. ost

of rehabilitation can be as high as $4 ,per hectare.


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Rehabilitated i ed land i h re r ne t

er i n has, rill, sheet and t nnelling. hisresults ina l ss f t soil and egetation, andinextreme ases leads toamoonscapeordesert appearance. hiscan result frompoormanagement andovergrazingbycattlebutoften it isbecause the topsoil asverypoorevenbeforemining. Assuch it needs tobeappropriatelymanaged tobesustainable.


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Coal mining is essential to supply our energy needs but it comes at a cost

Burning coal results in high greenhouse gas emissions

Mining has a high environmental impact on the landscape.

Underground aquifers and other soil characteristics are forever changed

even after rehabilitation

Rehabilitation to support grazing is not always possible due to varyingquality of rehabilitation. This is often due to poor topsoil prior to mining.

Mining is appropriate when the benefits outweigh the costs but often we

only look at the money that will be made from mining not the long term

environmental impacts that persist after mining has ceased.


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A mining company is proposing a coal mine in a r ich agricultural valley (much richer than the Bowen Basin) which produces much of Australiaswheat, corn, sunflower (oil, seeds), canola, sorghum, barley, chickpeas and legumes, cotton and specialist crops, as well as some cattleand sheep grazing. The underground aquifers and surface flows contribute to the Murray Darling Basin. This landscape has a uniqueunderground aquifer system that means only one crop has failed in the last twenty years where in surrounding areas seven of the lasttwenty crops have failed. It is argued by the farmers that any structural damage or pollution by mining, as demonstrated many times inthe geologically similar Southern coalfield, for example, would be devastating for food supply and the purity and quantity of Australias

water systems

The miners argue that the revenue from the mine is expected to be in the vicinity of 75 billion Australian dollars over its 30 year life. The miningcompany has paid $500 million dollars to the government for the exploration rights to the valley. As such the export earnings and jobs itwould create in the local economy far outweigh those of farming the land over 30 years which is only expected to be in the vicinity of 250million dollars.

To undertake the mining project 20 families will lose their homes and farms. Compensation will be very generous allowing these families topurchase larger farms in other areas, but many farms have been in the one family for up to five generations and there are also a numberof buildings of historical significance that would be lost.

When the mine is closed the mining company has given assurances that rehabilitation will be to the highest standard but cannot guarantee

that the underground aquifer will be able to be retained in any form and thus it is likely that much of the existing water flows into theMurray Darling system will be lost forever. In addition the land in the valley will never be able to be farmed again, it will only be able to be

used for grazing, a much lower level of revenue per hectare than farming which is the current land use. The cost of this loss long term hasnot been quantified by the mining company.

There are many areas surrounding the valley that have vast reserves of coal that could be mined without damaging the aquifer, but the coal isof a lower standard and thus would have a higher greenhouse gas emissions.

Required: You are part of a group in a government department who are advising the Minister for Mining and the Environment on the

arguments for or against permission to be granted for mining to proceed in the valley. What arguments would you put forward to theminister and what would your recommendation be and why with regard to allowing or not allowing mining to proceed in the valley?

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Money, Mining and Sustainable Landscapes