3 Initiatives from the Reimagine Rehab Prospectus
As part of our ongoing commitment to spotlight innovation in post mining land use, this week’s Friday Fact highlights three opportunity areas featured in our newly released Reimagine Rehab Post Mining Land Use Prospectus. These initiatives demonstrate how circular economy principles can transform mining land into productive, sustainable assets that deliver long term value for industry, community, and the region.
Below, we explore three key opportunities identified in the Prospectus.
The Prospectus identifies minerals reprocessing to extract valuable residual minerals from waste and tailings as a major opportunity for the region. Tailings reprocessing can create value from products such as critical minerals, road subbase aggregates, and agricultural soil conditioner. With numerous tailings facilities across the Isaac region and advancements in modern recovery techniques, minerals reprocessing offers strong potential to unlock additional economic value, reduce rehabilitation liabilities, and support circular mining practices built on resource recovery.
Leveraging the region’s established strengths, the Prospectus highlights modern agriculture and aquaculture leveraging the strength of our agriculture industry as a transformative opportunity. Former mine sites offer potential for intensive agriculture, horticulture, controlled environment food production, and aquaculture aligned with regional growth sectors. By repurposing land, water, and existing infrastructure, these opportunities support diversification, value added production, and long term resilience for regional communities and industries.
Mine sites hold significant volumes of water, positioning the region to benefit from water re use and storage for a wide variety of uses, and as an enabler of other opportunities. The Prospectus notes that increasing water availability through mine water re use can support agriculture, aquaculture, renewable energy, critical minerals processing, drought resilience, and broader economic development. With more than 186 gigalitres of water stored across regional mine sites, repurposing this resource aligns strongly with circular economy principles and offers substantial regional value.