Mine Rehabilitation Services in NSW

When your mining operations are progressing to the rehabilitation stage, you need a head contractor that can deliver landform reconstruction, revegetation, and monitoring within one package.

Solve Civil won’t just be your head contractor; we’ll be your partner for all your on-ground mine rehabilitation works. We’re a civil construction business that delivers integrated earthworks, erosion control, revegetation, and drone-based monitoring under the one contract. Our team will deliver to your approved rehabilitation management plan and provide aerial evidence for all your reporting and auditing needs.

Contact Solve Civil today, and partner with us for your mine rehabilitation services.

Mine rehabilitation is the planned restoration of mined land to a safe, stable, and approved post-mining land use

What Is Mine Rehabilitation?

Mine rehabilitation is the planned restoration of mined land to a safe, stable, and approved post-mining land use. It consists of reshaping landforms, capping waste materials, managing drainage, revegetation, and monitoring. In New South Wales, mine rehabilitation obligations involve meeting the conditions set by the NSW Resources Regulator, delivered under the operator’s approved rehabilitation management plan.

Rehabilitation has multiple purposes, including meeting obligations, achieving the approved final land use (such as grazing or conservation), reducing long-term liability, and enabling site handover.

It should be noted that mine rehabilitation and mine closure processes are two distinct sets of operations in the mining industry. While mine rehabilitation involves ongoing work, mine closure is the end state reached once mining tenure is relinquished.

Our Mine Rehabilitation Services

At Solve Civil, we deliver all of your on-ground mine rehabilitation services under a single contract, chosen to suit your mine type, rehab phase, and compliance requirements. Whether it’s landform reconstruction, capping, revegetation, or maintenance, our experts always follow best practices throughout the rehabilitation life cycle.

Landform Reconstruction & Bulk Earthworks

Our landform reconstruction and bulk earthworks encompass reshaping voids, batters, dumps, and waste rock emplacements into stable, free-draining landforms, which meet the operator’s approved final landform design. In practice, this involves bulk earthmoving, batter reshaping, contouring, topsoil replacement, and final trimming.

Capping, Drainage & Surface Treatment

Solve Civil’s capping service involves placing an engineered cover over waste rock or tailings. We’ll also install drainage to manage surface water, and stabilise the surface of your terrain to support revegetation.

On the ground, these services encompass material placement, drainage swale construction, contour drains, rock armouring on steep faces, and soil stabilisation on erosion-vulnerable areas. It’s through these and other services that we get your ground ready for revegetation.

Revegetation & Erosion Control

Revegetation services involve re-establishing native or approved vegetation cover across rehabilitated areas. Our planting methods include direct seeding, tube stock planting, hydromulching, and hydroseeding for large areas. Species selection is delivered to an operator’s approved plan; Solve Civil executes, and doesn’t prescribe.

Erosion control services, meanwhile, are an integral part of revegetation, as they protect newly-planted ground during the establishment phase.

Maintenance, Monitoring & ARR Evidence

Maintenance and monitoring are important elements of any mine closure project. At Solve Civil, we carry out a full range of post-works maintenance, weed control, and infill planting where survival rates dip below target. Our monitoring, meanwhile, is drone-based and takes place through the establishment and maintenance phases.

In practical terms, this involves scheduled drone flyovers, vegetation cover assessments, survival audit imagery, weed control, vegetation management services, and reporting packages which support an operator’s annual rehabilitation report.

Mine & Site Types We Work On

At Solve Civil, we deliver rehabilitation works across the complete range of NSW mining activities and extractive operations. This encompasses coal mines, hard rock mines, sand and gravel operations, and quarry sites.

Coal Mines

  • open-cut spoil reshaping
  • final void contouring
  • overburden dump rehabilitation
  • progressive rehabilitation across long-life operations

Additionally, we also have capacity for heavy earthmoving phases on coal rehab works.

Hard Rock Mines

  • waste rock dump rehabilitation
  • batter reshaping
  • drainage works
  • revegetation across gold, copper, and base metal operations

Hard rock rehab often involves steeper, erosion-prone landforms. Given this, our integrated approach to erosion control and soil stabilisation can make a big difference to overall rehabilitation success.

Sand, Gravel & Quarry Sites

  • pit floor and batter reshaping
  • drainage
  • topsoil reinstatement
  • revegetation under approved mine closure plans

Many sites in NSW are progressing to closure or change-of-use under local government and resources regulator oversight, making quarry rehabilitation all the more important to get right.

Legacy & Abandoned Mine Sites

  • rehabilitation of legacy workings under NSW government contracts
  • public safety stabilisation
  • capping of openings
  • revegetation

At Solve Civil, we’ll deliver our services to the contracting government department’s specifications.

Hydromulching

NSW Mine Rehabilitation Compliance

In NSW, mine rehabilitation falls under a strict regulatory framework. It’s critical to get mining rehabilitation right and ensure compliance, otherwise serious project, reputational, and financial risks can follow.

The NSW Resources Regulator oversees rehabilitation compliance across NSW mines and audits operators against their approved EMPs and Forward Programs. On top of this, NSW mine operators are required to maintain a Rehabilitation Management Plan (RMP), with rehabilitation progress reported via an Annual Rehabilitation Report (ARR).

At Solve Civil, we deliver our work directly under your approved RMP, with our reporting packages structured to support the ARR. Our delivery practices are aligned with the Australian Government’s leading practice mine rehabilitation handbook.

Hydromulching on dam wall with the Vortec VX 2000

Our Mine Rehabilitation Process

Even though no two mining sites are alike, Solve Civil uses the same four-stage plan to make sure all work is scoped accurately, delivered on program, and signed off with full compliance evidence. Here’s what our process looks like.

Our process

1. Site Assessment & Drone Survey

A Solve Civil rehab expert visits your site with your environmental and rehab leads. They'll review your approved RMP, current landform, access, and rehab phase. We'll also fly our drone over the site to scope our works and provide a quote for the project.

Our process

 2. Planning & Compliance Check

With our assessment complete, we'll start to plan our work in line with your RMP, Forward Program, EPL conditions, and any approval-stage commitments. Additionally, we'll confirm our methods, machinery, and crew against the project's scope. Throughout the process, our team will continue coordinating with your local environment team, providing regular notifications when required, and confirming approval-stage commitments, such as biodiversity offsets.

Our process

3. On-Site Delivery

Our full crew will arrive at your site with all the necessary equipment, including earthmovers, hydromulching units, erosion control gear, and plants. Our work is sequenced in a way so that each phase enables the next. All on-site controls are implemented, including exclusion zones, traffic management, dust suppression, and any operator-specific permit to work systems.

 

Our process

4. Monitoring, Sign-Off & ARR Evidence

Once our groundwork is finished, we'll conduct a thorough post-works inspection, as well as use our drones for monitoring flyovers for the vegetation establishment phase. Additionally, we'll provide a full reporting package with aerial imagery, cover assessments, and survival data, all structured for easy placement into annual rehabilitation reports. Our handover can act as a transition into a longer-term maintenance contract between works, or be closed out for your internal team to action the next steps for your rehabilitation.

Why Choose Solve Civil for Mine Rehabilitation

Why Choose Us

NSW head contractor

A single point of accountability from site assessment through to post-mining works monitoring.

Why Choose Us

Civil construction backbone

The heavy earthmoving and landform reconstruction phases of rehab are Solve Civil's core capability, not a bolt-on.

Why Choose Us

Integrated land management offering

Earthworks, erosion control, soil stabilisation, hydromulching, hydroseeding, revegetation, and vegetation management are all delivered in-house.

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Related Services

Beyond our mine rehabilitation work, we have a variety of other services that can be seamlessly integrated as part of your site’s management. Take a look at some of our offerings below.

Erosion Control

Learn more

Soil Stabilisation

Learn more

Frequently asked questions

How much does mine rehabilitation cost?

The full cost of mining rehabilitation varies based on a number of factors, including mine type, scale, landform complexity, target final land use, and compliance requirements. When it comes to cost, progressive rehabilitation is usually more cost-effective than waiting for closure-phase works. Contact our team for a tailored quote.

In NSW, the original mine operator has a legal obligation to rehabilitate the mine site throughout its life. For legacy mines that lack a viable operator, rehabilitation usually defers to the relevant state government department. At Solve Civil, we deliver our services under both operator and government contracts.

Progressive mine rehabilitation involves rehabilitating sections of a mine as they become available to work on, instead of waiting for closure. The NSW Resources Regulator encourages progressive rehabilitation via the Forward Program framework, reducing final stage liability for mining companies.

No, we do not. Solve Civil delivers on-ground work under your approved RMP. All RMP preparation, BAM assessments, and environmental consultancy are best done by a specialist.

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Get a Mine Rehabilitation Quote for Your Site

Every mining site is different, and requires a team of experts to carry out rehabilitation in line with NSW regulations. When you’re looking for your mining rehabilitation partner, talk to Solve Civil. We’ll go through your rehabilitation phase, approved plan, compliance requirements, and the work scope, producing a tailored quote that covers the full range of services for your rehabilitation project.

Contact Solve Civil today, and discover how we’ll rehabilitate your mine site.

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