Dead planet, living planet

Princeton Hydro staff developed a design for the re-vegetation of the

mine and the restoration of a 25-acre Coastal Plain wetland in Salem

County, NJ. Of the 25 acres of wetland to be restored, 17 acres were

mined for over 20 years and an estimated 4 million cubic yards of

gravel and clay were removed.

Project and photos credit: Princeton Hydro.

Mine Restoration, New Jersey, USA

CASE STUDY #10

Alcoa World Alumina Australia operates two bauxite mines

at Willowdale and Huntly in the Darling Range of south-

western Australia, 80–140 kilometers south of Perth. The

mine pits range in size from one hectare to tens of hect-

ares. Alcoa has been rehabilitating its bauxite mines since

1966; today some 550 hectares are mined and rehabilitated

Restoring vegetation, forest and water resources from abandoned

Bauxite Mines in Western Australia

annually. The technology of rehabilitation has been improved con-

tinuously over the years – from plantations of exotic pine trees to

a sophisticated state-of-the-art rehabilitation program. Alcoa’s aim

after bauxite mining in these areas is to re-establish all the pre-ex-

isting land uses of the forest: conservation, timber production, wa-

ter production and recreation. Re-establishing a jarrah forest on the

mined areas that is as similar to the original forest as possible was

determined to be the best way to achieve this goal.

Some 200 million USD were invested from 1996–2007 and over

10,500 ha were restored. The restored jarrah forest has high conser-

vation and biodiversity value and is the basis of a major sawmilling

industry, and is widely used for recreation pursuits.

Alcoa has been successful in reaching its goal. In 2000, the company

documented that, on average, 100 % of the indigenous plant species

found in representative jarrah forest sites would also be found in a

15-month-old rehabilitation, with at least 20 % of those found being

from a recalcitrant species priority list. The goal now is to maintain

this good record and thus the botanical richness of mined areas after

mining operations have ceased.

Source: SER, 2010

CASE STUDY #11