Coppabella Coal Mine amendment risks long-term environmental harm

Environmental Advocacy in Central Queensland (EnvA) has lodged a submission opposing proposed changes to the Environmental Authority for Peabody’s Coppabella Coal Mine. The amendments would allow the company to abandon rehabilitation of a large mine void, leaving behind permanent scars on the landscape.

Peabody has applied to change the rehabilitation objective for the residual voids from “post-mining land use” to “non-use management areas” — essentially an 80 hectare unrehabilitated, water-filled pit, with a further 300ha of unusable land.

EnvA’s submission highlights that:

• The amendments are inconsistent with Queensland’s mine rehabilitation policies and fail to meet regulatory requirements.
• The Proponent has not provided evidence that NUMAs are safer or less harmful than rehabilitation.
• Long-term risks — including water contamination, salinity build-up, and void wall instability under extreme weather — have not been addressed.
• Consultation has been limited, with broader community and public interest considerations ignored.
• The staged, piecemeal approach prevents proper assessment of cumulative impacts, including the mine’s proposed expansion and creek diversions.

EnvA argues that this is a cost-avoidance strategy that shifts long-term environmental and financial risks onto the community. “Leaving unrehabilitated mine voids in perpetuity is not in the public interest and fails any triple bottom line assessment,” the submission states.

We are calling for the Department of Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation to reject the amendment. A genuine, whole-of-project assessment which incorporates the proposed mine expansion and waterway diversions must be undertaken to properly evaluate the environmental and social consequences of the proposed final landform.