Summary
IEMA supported Yancoal Australia across detailed mine closure planning for multiple coal assets, including the Stratford Mining Complex, Duralie Coal Mine and Austar Coal Mine. The work involved multi-year, iterative closure planning programs across open cut and underground operations, integrating technical studies, risk management, stakeholder engagement, and regulatory alignment.
The Objective
Yancoal required detailed mine closure planning to support long-term closure outcomes, financial provisioning, and future regulatory engagement. The objective was to manage complex closure requirements across different mining methods, site histories and approvals frameworks, while reducing uncertainty around long-term liabilities and supporting acceptable closure and relinquishment outcomes.
Our Response
IEMA worked as an integral part of Yancoal’s Austar and Stratford Duralie closure teams to support delivery of structured, risk-based closure planning across these assets and programs.
While each asset presented distinct technical, regulatory, and operational challenges, IEMA applied a consistent framework and approach to support closure planning.
Our involvement spanned from initial base case closure plan development through to detailed mine closure plan delivery and early works execution support, providing continuity across all phases of closure planning.
Our role focused on study coordination, risk assessment, technical integration, and closure advisory, ensuring alignment of technical inputs and maintaining progress as designs and assumptions evolved.
This approach recognises that effective closure planning is not a one-off study, but a multi-year, decision-driven process, requiring alignment across technical, financial, and regulatory domains, while remaining adaptable to the specific requirements of each asset.
The Impact
IEMA supported the delivery of detailed, integrated closure plans that defined closure works, forward work programs, and pathways to address design gaps and ongoing risks.
The work helped reduce closure risks and uncertainty, improve confidence in closure cost estimates, and support optimised and defensible rehabilitation outcomes. IEMA also supported early closure works at Austar, including demolition and contamination management activities, which have now been substantially completed. Overall, the program demonstrated the value of treating closure as a structured, multi-year business function rather than a one-off compliance study.
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