<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jul/06/fears-queenslanders-could-be-forced-to-pay-for-mine-cleanup-as-lnp-reviews-environmental-red-tape>
"Queenslanders are being warned they could be left to pay for the clean up of
abandoned mines if rehabilitation laws are weakened, after the state government
announced a bid to cut environmental “red tape” for resources companies.
The state’s treasurer, David Janetzki, and the mining minister, Dale Last, this
week announced a review of a scheme that requires resources companies to
provide surety to cover remediation and rehabilitation costs when mines close.
Last said the review would ensure the scheme, introduced in 2019, remained “fit
for purpose” and supported “responsible resources development across Queensland
without constraining investment”.
“The financial provisioning scheme has been one of the top three issues smaller
mining companies and explorers continue to raise with me,” Last said.
“Queensland has an enormous opportunity to become a global leader in critical
minerals and the Crisafulli government is committed to cutting red tape to
unlock the next wave of investment.”
Janetzki said the review would “get the balance right between the highest
environmental standards for rehabilitation and remediation” and “the right
investment settings for junior miners and explorers to make a contribution to
mining activity”.
But the Lock the Gate Alliance’s central Queensland coordinator, Claire Gronow,
said smaller miners were those most at risk of “walking away and leaving an
un-rehabilitated mine site”.
Gronow said environmental campaigners and primary producers already had “big
concerns” about a trend of “selling down”, in which larger miners were exiting
coalmines – not by closing and rehabilitating them but offloading them to
smaller companies.
These companies, often holding a portfolio of just coalmines and which are
sometimes foreign owned, were particularly exposed to fluctuations and
volatilities in the industry.
“You are not going to be able to get the money out of them after they walk
away,” Gronow said.
“They can put a mine into care and maintenance and then the company just
disappears into a puff of smoke”.
Gronow said a rehabilitation bond might be “off putting” for smaller miners.
But she said that, if a company could not provide financial security to cover
those costs, “should it really be in the business?”
In the absence of an adequate rehabilitation bond, Gronow said mining companies
could “take the profit and disappear”.
“In which case, we, ordinary Queenslanders, bear that legacy,” she said. “And
that legacy is not just a scar in the ground. It’s leeching contaminants into
our waterways, into our Great Barrier Reef, those sorts of things, that will go
on for generations.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
