Bengalla rehab to start rendering results

Pictured: Rehabilitated pasture for grazing and native vegetation.

The Muswellbrook township will soon start to see evidence of rehabilitation work which has been underway at Bengalla to help significantly reduce the visual impact of the mine to the Muswellbrook community.

Bengalla general manager operations, Andrea Sutton, said the rehabilitation works will help enable the side of the mine which faces the town to blend in with the surrounding landscape.

“Muswellbrook residents will start to see work taking shape during 2010 and it will take around three years to return the area to a mix of pasture for grazing and native vegetation,” Andrea said.

“We know that rehabilitation is an important issue to the community, and we are pleased with the progress to date, and will continue to keep the community informed as this work continues.”

Last year Bengalla completed 13 hectares of rehabilitation with the assistance of local suppliers and contractors, which was three hectares above its annual target.

“We also began trialling a new waste treatment product sourced from a local supplier. A Muswellbrook agronomist was also employed to work with our environmental team to provide advice and ensure the accuracy of seeding rates at the time of planting,” Andrea said.

“It is important to us that our local communities actively participate in the economic activity that results from our operation, and all of the equipment and labour used in our rehabilitation work were from local labour hire companies.”

Andrea said throughout Bengalla’s life, a range of rehabilitation programmes will continue to be enhanced to manage its impact on the land on which it operates to help ensure the land will be available in the future for other uses such as agriculture.

“We take this work very seriously, and last year we were delighted to be recognised for this work in Coal & Allied’s “Environmental Sustainability Award 2009”, presented by the Hunter Business Chamber,” Andrea said.