UHMD REPORTS ON REHABILITATION PROGRESS

The Upper Hunter Mining Dialogue’s (UHMD) 2024 Rehabilitation Principles and Commitments reporting project has been finalised.

Since 2012, the Dialogue has been collecting and reporting on annual rehabilitation data from Upper Hunter mining operations. This information is provided annually to the community to improve transparency and awareness of the amount of progressive rehabilitation and disturbance across the region.

Mining operators report on a set of common rehabilitation principles and commitments to drive improvements to rehabilitation. These principles aim to decrease the periods of time that disturbed areas are left without temporary or final cover to minimise the impacts on the landscape and air quality. 

Like 2023, the rehabilitation data for 2024 has been collected from the Rehabilitation Annual Reports which are provided by industry to the Resources Regulator. The 2024 results include data from one additional site that has resumed mining operations after a period in care and maintenance.

Key outcomes from the 2024 results include:

• 749 hectares of land was newly rehabilitated in 2024, taking the total amount of land under rehabilitation at the end of 2024 to 15,080 hectares. This is similar to the 5 year average.
• 1,749 hectares of land was newly disturbed during the period, which is above the 5 year average (1,187 hectares). The increased disturbance is at both Hunter Valley Operations and Mount Pleasant sites.
• At the end of the period, 27,609 hectares of land disturbed by mining is yet to commence rehabilitation.
• The total amount of disturbed land under rehabilitation climbed to just over 15,000 ha, which is a 71% increase from 2012 when the project commenced. About 35% of the total amount of land disturbed by mining is now under rehabilitation.

FRONT ROW SEAT TO UHMD

In 2025 the Dialogue has introduced a webinar series with the aim of providing direct access for Dialogue members and wider stakeholders to subject matter experts on topics of interest.

In April, Zephyr Environmental led a webinar with nearly 30 attendees which included an explanation of the basics of air monitoring as well as explaining the 2024 Upper Hunter Air Quality Annual Reporting results and how they compare to previous years.

The next webinar held on October 1 addresses the results of the 2024 Rehabilitation Principles and Commitments reporting project. The webinar will include the NSW Resources Regulator outlining how rehabilitation is regulated in NSW, and a current case study from Liddell Mine showing how industry is progressively undertaking rehabilitation.