Breaking ground on broken ground - Setting the precedent for brown coal mine closure in the Latrobe Valley
Monday, 16 March, 2020
Johan Du Plooy, ELA’s Principal Hydrogeologist and Mine Closure Lead, has had his work cut out assisting in developing the rehabilitation and closure plan of one of Australia’s largest coal mines.
Nestled in the Latrobe Valley at the base of the great-dividing range lies three major brown coal power stations that have ‘kept the lights on’ in Victoria for several decades. The 2nd largest of these was the Hazelwood power station and associated mine which, in its heyday, singlehandedly provided 25% of Victoria’s power.
This great capacity didn’t come without its own risks and costs, which, alongside ENGIE’s and Victoria’s changing power strategy, led to the closure of the power station in 2017 and subsequent closure of the adjacent mine.
ELA was engaged by ENGIE Australia to provide support in the development of a Rehabilitation and Closure Plan (RCP) for the mine following the closure of the Hazelwood power station. Being the first major coal mine closure in Victoria, ELA’s mine closure experts not only had to work with ENGIE to navigate this highly complex process but also pave the way for future mine closures in the area.
The first step was to appreciate the current status of mine rehabilitation and closure planning on site so as to assist ENGIE to develop a pathway to successful completion of the RCP. The RCP not only deals with the closure of the mine itself but has to take into account air quality, ecology, water quality and regeneration just to name a few.
“Initially we were engaged to undertake a desk study and ‘gap analysis’ where we looked at the entire situation to understand the ‘gap’ between where the project is now and where it needs to be for a successful result” explained Johan.
“The analysis highlighted several technical areas that needed to be taken into account during the closure of the mine.”
Following the gap analysis, Johan in his role as Project Director, guided the ELA team who worked tirelessly. They managed several technical sub-contractors on behalf of ENGIE to assist in the preparation of the RCP. Knowing the project needed a highly consultative approach to achieve the desired quality of result, ENGIE, Johan and ELA threw out the traditional client-consultant approach and opted for an integrated team approach.
“This is a project that brings technical, regulatory and industry together in a relatively new process and requirement” says Johan.
“We were navigating the relatively new regulatory approvals process and at the same time assisting in the development of knowledge in various rehabilitation and closure technical studies to which the other mines in the Latrobe Valley would utilise and in some cases more broadly a field in other mines throughout Australia”.
Managing challenging timeframes, project requirements and regulatory processes created some interesting challenges for the team. The team completed an initial draft RCP document ready for submission by June 2019. However, due to changes in project requirements and as well as regulator expectations, the team of ENGIE and ELA experts went back to the drawing board to meet and address these new requirements.
“A new revised draft document that focused on a staged approach was developed using the information from the initial draft and will be submitted to the regulator during the first week of February 2020” said Johan.
“I feel extremely proud that we not only worked collaboratively to get a result that was very satisfying for ENGIE and ELA but also produced a result that will be beneficial for the environment, the end land use and the community” says Johan.
“I was supported by an awesome team: Layla Howe (PM and Technical Delivery), Ashley Tones (Technical Delivery), Paree Shine (Project Controls), Sally Pickard, Karen Fogarty (Technical Delivery)”
“I would also like to thank in particular Grace Abou-Abdallah, RCP Support Officer from ERM and James Faithful, Technical Services Manager from ENGIE for their valued guidance and support through this complex project”.
