enviroMETS has been assisting Dr Pete Whitbread-Abrutat on the Australian leg of his global study tour of ‘102 holes in the ground’. It kicked off on Friday 14-April, with a briefing with the Queensland Government, followed by a more relaxed session with CRC TiME and University of Qld researchers.

With the support of Eden Project, RioTinto, BHP, and AngloAmerican, Pete established, and is project managing and writing the book to be called “102 Things to Do with a Hole in the Ground”. This began early in 2022 and aims to be published by the end of 2023.

enviroMETS Lighthouse Projects workshop demonstrated the need for a fresh approach to how we pursue economic, social, and ecological rehabilitation of mining impacted land, and its communities. We don’t intend to reinvent the wheel, we intend to learn from others, like Pete, to find innovative and sustainable ways create new value from the many abandoned and closed mine sites in QLD. 

Pete utilised six international case study sites (pictured above) to share some global observations and themes of what is possible if we have an enabling environment (societal, regulatory policy and industry), and creative minds to try something different.  

1: Eden Project; 2: Zollverein Coal Industrial Complex; 3: Mpumalanga Coal Mines; 4: Brown Coal Strip Mining; 5: Northumberlandia; 6: Underground Adventures 

Contributing Members can Download Meeting Notes Here