Anglo American continues to innovate and pursue best practice mine rehabilitation across the business, delivering outstanding results.  Dawson Mine has been leading the way in innovative rehabilitation approaches, including completed rehabilitation of an area previously containing voids, to final landform.

The company pioneered the use of blasting techniques to successfully reshape void highwall into final landform position in 2013. Pre- and post-blast surveying was undertaken to provide accurate estimates of how much reshaping and material was required for final landform.

Four blasts were required to complete the project, which moved considerable amounts of highwall material into final landform position. Following reshaping, the area was seeded with a grazing mix of native and introduced species. It was then treated with five tonnes per ha of Gypsum in 2017 and re-seeded.

The area is currently being monitored for plant growth and species richness. Monitoring will continue every three years for progression to a stable state, and the area is expected to be ready for grazing activities in around four to five years.

At the time, very few trials had been conducted using this sophisticated and innovative technique.

The successful rehabilitation of the area has demonstrated the technique can be applied to reshaping mining voids – one of the most challenging aspects of rehabilitation for the industry – and rehabilitate land for productive post-mining use.