Oaky Creek rehabilitation earns government approval

Glencore’s Oaky Creek Coal is now government approved for 132.8 hectares of rehabilitated mined land.

Resources Minister Scott Stewart announced it during his visit to Oaky Creek last weekend to look at the site’s rehabilitation work, including the two areas that were submitted to government for certification assessment.

This is the fifth successful certification application in the past three years by a Glencore site in Queensland and the seventh across Glencore’s Australian coal business.

Oaky Creek Operations Manager Dave Stone said the certification includes two areas on the site that are now covered with native vegetation and could potentially be a grazing field for local cattle.

“The rehabilitation is across a 60 hectare area known as G5S, which was mined in the 1980s, and a 72 hectare area called Grasstree, where mining finished in the 1990s,” Mr Stone said.

“These areas have now reached maturity and demonstrated species reproduction from seeding, two of the key criteria required under the certification process.

“As progressive and responsible miners, we will continue to work on achieving completion criteria for other areas of rehabilitation across our site.”

Oaky Creek has successfully completed a further 369 hectares of rehabilitation in 2020.