Effective rehabilitation is a major challenge for the many active and legacy mines across northern Australia. Rehabilitation has historically focused on site stabilisation and re-establishing vegetation cover. Best practice mine site rehabilitation now aims for ecosystem restoration. This means sustainably integrating the site with the surrounding landscape – re-establishing animal and plant communities, as well as ecological processes like nutrient cycling, pollination and seed dispersal.
The Ranger Uranium Mine, surrounded by Kakadu National Park, is due to be rehabilitated by 2026. Rehabilitation trials started in the 1980s and have had varying success, but the site currently has no rehabilitation specifications for animals other than that no exotic species should be introduced. The animal species occurring in surrounding natural habitat can serve as a benchmark for assessing the success of faunal rehabilitation at the mine. This project aims to set such benchmarks for both vertebrate and invertebrate fauna. Results from the research will help set the standards or closure criteria for successful ecosystem restoration at the Ranger mine. The Australian Government will use the criteria to assess rehabilitation success at the mine.
This project will:
Project activities
Anticipated outputs
Fieldwork will take place at Ranger Uranium Mine and the surrounding parts of Kakadu National Park, 230km west of Darwin, Northern Territory.
This project is being led by Professor Alan Andersen from Charles Darwin University (CDU). Professor Andersen will be assisted by researchers from CDU, the Supervising Scientist Branch of the Department of the Environment and Energy, the Northern Territory Government and Energy Resources of Australia Ltd.
Contact
Alan Andersen, Charles Darwin University
[email protected]