From rehabilitation to restoration: a 12-year case study

Authors: Haagner, ASH; van Wyk, SJ Download Paper Open access courtesy of:

DOI https://doi.org/10.36487/ACG_repo/2515_94

Cite As:
Haagner, ASH & van Wyk, SJ 2025, 'From rehabilitation to restoration: a 12-year case study', in S Knutsson, AB Fourie & M Tibbett (eds), Mine Closure 2025: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Mine Closure, Australian Centre for Geomechanics, Perth, pp. 1-12, https://doi.org/10.36487/ACG_repo/2515_94



Abstract:
Mine-related and post-mining disturbances have the potential to persist almost indefinitely and can cause ongoing habitat deterioration and fragmentation. This, in turn, can lead to irreversible declines in critical ecosystem functions, directly affecting the natural environment and communities that depend on it for economic activities and basic human needs. We have been tracking the development of post-mining restoration efforts on a platinum mine for the past 12 years, and our findings have been used to guide the maintenance actions required to sustain ecosystem recovery trajectories. The monitoring framework is extensive and covers landform recreation, soil hydrology and physics, soil chemistry and microbial activity, vegetation dynamics and recolonisation of rehabilitating sites by birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians. In this paper we delve into showing how the original rehabilitation-focused planning transformed into a restoration mindset. Shifts in ecosystem resilience following droughts, fires and intensive grazing, as well as social expectations (the majority of the site is within the Marikana Thornveld vegetation type, recently uplisted to endangered status), have required ongoing planning and management responses. The ecosystem responses to post-disturbance ecological development have shown improving trends across 12 years of monitoring, with stochastic deviations from trends observed for different taxa under varying prevailing conditions. The long-term nature of the monitoring program has proven its value in that it has allowed for high-confidence trend analyses that inform restoration planning and maintenance activities. Whilst restoration efforts have not necessarily been perfectly executed, and external ecosystem stressors have hampered consistent ecosystem development, this study shows the importance of undertaking rehabilitation and restoration activities within a clear framework that is outcomes-oriented and data-driven.

Keywords: mine rehabilitation, ecosystem development, restoration, monitoring

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