UNFINISHED BUSINESS

REPURPOSED MINES FINDING NEW WAYS TO PRODUCE

- Damien Martin

Once work is finished at a mining site, there’s the question of what to do with the space. Several companies are rehabilitating them to their original states to encourage the return of wildlife. With as many as 60,000 disused sites across the country, according to 2017 Australia Institute research, companies are developing innovative uses for these areas. These repurposed mines could provide shining examples for how to use tens of thousands of other sites.

ANGLESEA MINE

One plan is to turn the Anglesea coal mine in Victoria into a $150 million ecotourism park. UK-based Eden Project proposed the idea, modelling it after a similar project at a disused clay mine in Cornwall. The repurposed mine in Cornwall attracts more than 1 million visitors annually and has added nearly $4 billion to the regional economy since its opening in 2001.

Eden Project would construct a 100-hectare lake at the Anglesea site, which Alcoa closed in 2015 after 46 years of operation. The park would spotlight the traditional four elements of earth, air, fire, and water. Eden Project says it would add 300 ongoing full-time jobs. Anglesea’s position along the Great Ocean Road makes it a great candidate for what Eden Project International chief executive David Harland described to the Guardian as “a sisterhood of sites across the world, each of which are focused on different aspects of how humans interact with the natural world.”