OQMRC Seminar – Creating alternate growth media (Online)

Mining disturbs land surfaces which need to be rehabilitated at the conclusion of mining activities. To rehabilitate land, disturbed areas need to be covered with soil that is amenable to the growth of vegetation. The topsoil obtained from the mining operation is often the most suitable for rehabilitation purposes as it has the greatest biological activity, seed bank and organic matter accumulation, however, available volumes are often very small relative to the volume of soil required to rehabilitate a mine. To address topsoil deficits on mine sites, the identification and amelioration of alternate soil materials such as subsoil and spoil is required.

The Office of the Queensland Mine Rehabilitation Commissioner recently published the Technical Paper ‘Creating alternate growth media to achieve successful revegetation on Queensland mines’. The paper presents an approach to generate a growth medium and provides information on material physicochemical properties and constraints limiting its function as a growth medium. This seminar will provide an overview of the approach from two of the paper’s authors, Bernhard Wehr and Glenn Dale, and will provide an opportunity for you to ask questions of the authors about the paper and its application.