Former Hunter mine sites possess economic potential capable of supporting communities for generations to come, a world-leading mining environmental specialist believes.
UK-based Pete Whitbread-Abrutat, who recently visited Mt Arthur mine at Muswellbrook as part of a tour of Australia, said the 7000 hectare site presented significant social and economic opportunities.
"When these mines were set up several decades ago there was a very different environmental and socioeconomic landscape than exists today," he said.
"I'm just trying to open people's minds a little bit about what you can do."
BHP is presently consulting about potential uses for the land once the mine closes in 2030.
Suggestions to date include adventure parks, hiking, and mountain bike trails, renewable energy projects, manufacturing and biodiversity projects.
The company has also said its preference is for hundreds of millions of dollars worth of infrastructure at the site to be repurposed rather than demolished.
Dr Whitbread-Abrutat, who recently published 102 things to do with a hole in the ground, said mining communities around the world were grappling with similar issues.
"You can close the mine and walk away and leave a nice ecological landscape, but in a place like the Hunter Valley, you've got other land uses that have impacted the environment like farms, horse breeding and the military. So it's not a pristine environment anyway," he said.
"That's not to say we shouldn't rehabilitate but you need to recognise that the people in those communities need some kind of decent livelihood to replace mining jobs.
"Either you're going to create it on the mine site or you're going to have to create new industries on other pieces of land somewhere else, which will have environmental impacts."
He recently returned to the Appalachian mining region of the US to check on the progress of several rehabilitation projects that commenced more than a decade ago.
"In 2011 it was a typical post-mining landscape but there has been a very positive journey. There's all kinds of new things happening there now.
"They have reused those old sites for a regional benefit rather than just one-off projects on particular sites - things like joining them all up with old mining trails so you can go on ATV vehicles and mountain biking routes that cover hundreds of miles."
Dr Whitbread-Abrutat said creativity was an essential component of a successful rehabilitation project.
An interconnected series of lakes, similar to what exists in Lusatia, Germany, is among the ideas that have previously been put forward for the Hunter.
Dr Whitbread-Abrutat said the idea was worth investigating in the Hunter.
"Every mining region is different and that includes the chemistry of the mine waste, the acidity and the rest of it. So solutions around mine water quality have to be based on proper scientific evidence," he said.
"But, as a principle, there are very few options regarding what you can do with a massive void. You either fill it with water or fill it with rock. If you fill it with hundreds of millions of tons of rock the cost of doing that is extraordinary and the carbon emissions related to that are extraordinary as well."
