Premier Coal has conducted research into environmental issues for nearly 30 years. Projects have covered dieback control, final landform, revegetation methods, river impacts, success factors, success indicators and final void management. Premier’s commitment remains strong with ongoing research into void water, aquaculture and agriculture, wetlands and rehabilitation success criteria. Ongoing research is being done by the newly formed Collie Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Mine Lakes – of which Premier Coal was an instigator and founding member. In addition, Premier Coal’s commitment to sustainability has been reinforced by sponsorship of the Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Coal in Sustainable Development.

Premier Coal is committed to provide for ongoing research and development of rehabilitation issues and techniques. Work to date has included the effects on local river systems of mine-water discharges, fungal associations with plants, aluminium uptake in plants, optimal seed sourcing, germination trials, fertiliser dosage trials, rehabilitation success criteria and indicators, void water amelioration and end use options such as aquaculture.

Premier Coal has also been involved in general research such as rapid identification of dieback.

Recently, Premier Coal sponsored the ACARP (Australian Coal Association Research Program) project studying voids in Collie. This three-year project aimed to develop low-cost and low-maintenance technology for remediation of acidity in already abandoned open cut voids. The project combined studies into the hydrological conditions with research into the treatment of water through passive mine drainage systems and bacterial strategies. Part of this project was an investigation into acid tolerance of marron and native south-west fish species. The project involved several Universities and was coordinated by Curtin University.

This project, with a budget of approximately $1M, developed some appropriate remediation techniques and gave very encouraging results for future treatment options and aquaculture applications.

Clearly, with well-managed water quality, there is a huge potential to use these abandoned water bodies for aquaculture and recreational fishing. Consequently, a further ACARP project, seed funded by Premier Coal, was recently completed, providing a bioeconomic assessment of aquaculture options using and refining the remediation techniques developed in the first ACARP program. To this end, a trial aquafarm was established on the edge of the abandoned open cut, WO-5H Mine.

Further to this work, Premier Coal jointly instigated, with Curtin University, the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Mine Lakes based in Collie. The Centre aims to provide a world class research facility to study and model how void water bodies behave physically and chemically over time, to further develop practical remedial options and to provide opportunities for commercial or recreational applications.

Although there are a number of specific research objectives for the next four years, ultimately such Centres are expected to be self sustaining. Consequently, the ultimate mission of the Centre is:

“To provide research, education and consulting services into water quality, water remediation and beneficial uses for mine lakes for mining companies and the community in Western Australia and throughout the world”.

There are three basic planks to the Centre's (CSML) activities:

• Develop science to underpin decision making – for legislation, relinquishment, remediation and end uses;



• Develop amelioration techniques – with underlying themes to utilise/establish natural biological processes to provide self- sustaining, low-cost systems; and



• Assess various end use options and their sustainability.

The R&D aim is to optimise end use options where possible.

In summary, the Programs are about:

• prediction;
• treatment; and
• end uses.

Projects examples include:

Prediction of long-term water quality in acidic mine lakes, with and without remediation:

• To conduct an intensive lake investigation of meteorological, physical, chemical and microbial characteristics in an acidic mine lake over at least a one-year cycle;
  
• To combine this data set with already existing data to develop and test a numerical model which will predict the evolution of mine lake water quality over time;
  
• To quantify the impact of mine lake stratification on microbial dynamics and to incorporate this knowledge into the numerical model;
  
• Use the numerical model to predict outcomes of proposed chemical, biological and microbial remediation methodologies; and
  
• To apply this understanding and approach to other mine lakes to provide a workable model for evaluation of the forecast environmental issues at that site, with and without remediation.

Mine lake remediation strategies:

• Use a constructed wetland to test the suitability of lime-treated water for developing natural wetland processes. It is assumed that the development of these natural wetland processes within the void will stabilise water quality;
  
• Determine what needs to be added to or modified within the wetland to achieve any conditioning required;
  
• Test the role of nutrients and organic materials in improving water quality within the mine lakes; and
  
• Evaluate the effectiveness of this style of treatment wetland for improving water quality within mine lakes. In particular, provide design criteria for future wetlands and performance indicators.

Mine lake water quality assessment using bioassays and chemical analyses:

• Develop acute toxicity test protocols for freshwater aquatic organisms;
  
• Develop chronic toxicity test protocols for freshwater aquatic organisms;
  
• Estimate toxicity potential of mine lake water at different stages of treatment; and
  
• Identify key toxic elements in effluents by TIE (toxicity identification evaluation) study.

Construction and evaluation of fluidised limestone bed treatment system:

• To design, construct, install and evaluate a prototype fluidised limestone bed treatment system at the Collie Aquafarm at Wesfarmers Premier Coal 5H Mine site;
  
  
  
• To upscale the prototype to a commercial size modular treatment system;
  
• To develop a cost-effective chemical or biological approach to remove metal precipitates from the treatment settlement pond;
  
• To conduct further development work on the various components of the modular treatment system to develop a commercial product;
  
• To install a commercial sized module at Wesfarmers Premier Coal 5H Mine site and
  
• To engage with a manufacturing/engineering company to manufacture, market and install a fluidised limestone bed treatment system at a mine site in WA or interstate.

Beneficial end use projects:

• Development of appropriate technology for commercial enterprises using mine lake water with emphasis on aquaculture and horticulture but also consideration of other uses such as potable water, nature conservation, eco-tourism and recreation;
  
• Aquaculture is aimed at polyculture using crustacea and fin fish and technologies for food fish and native species of nature conservation significance;
  
• Horticulture is aimed at application of hydroponics to mine lake waters and the development of boronia cultivation and Plants for People;
  
• Biodiversity study to establish suitability of mine lakes for conservation of local aquatic species; and
  
• A Community development project is aimed at the establishment of local cooperatives for processing and marketing of horticulture and aquaculture products.