AERIAL SEEDING MINIMISES DUST AND IMPROVES VISUAL AMENITY

Hunter Valley Operations HVO continues to minimise on site dust and improve the visual amenity of large areas of land through aerial seeding.

On July 13, 400 hectares (ha) of exposed areas and overburden sites received 14 tonnes of seed, broadcast from SuperAir’s single prop plane. The land seeded was at the West, Carrington, Cheshunt and Riverview pits.

HVO Environment & Community Officer Peter Bowman said a specially selected pasture mix is used to provide green cover on the areas”. He said the mix includes rye grass, oats, vetch, couch, lucerne and brassica seeds which gives us opportunities for germination across all seasons.

“The weather conditions were perfect, so we were able to get the job done in one day,” Peter said.

“If they are not favourable, we adjust our seeding plans. The safety and amenity of staff and neighbours is our key priority when we carry out this work.”

With follow up rain, Peter expects the greater portion of the mixture will germinate and be providing green cover across these areas by Spring.

As outlined in HVO’s 2022 Environmental Review, last year HVO aerially seeded 319 ha of land as one of its dust suppression measures.

HVO also uses ground seeding as part of its ongoing rehabilitation program of areas that are no longer needed for mining. Rehabilitation work starts as soon as land is no longer needed for mining. It uses either pasture or native woodland seed mixes, so land becomes useful for cattle grazing or habitat for native flora and fauna. HVO’s environment team then monitors and maintains those areas.

In 2022, HVO prepared 256.8ha of land for rehabilitation and had 2779.2 ha of land under active rehabilitation. In 2023 HVO plans to prepare another 159.8ha of land for rehabilitation taking the total land under rehabilitation to 2911.2ha.

Watch this video to find out more about HVO’s rehabilitation program.

Read more about how HVO works to protect and minimise impacts from its operations on the environment here.