Cotton Australia: a sustainable cotton industry Sustainability for the Australian cotton industry means running profitable and efficient businesses while creating environmental, economic and social value. It also means being accountable to stakeholders for the industry’s actions and impacts. The Australian cotton industry has been actively working to do this for over 30 years. Now, the industry is seeking to improve even more as it works to its vision of being a global leader in sustainable cotton production. An Australian cotton sustainability framework called PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK. has been created to guide work to: set sustainability targets in the areas most important to industry and stakeholders; coordinate a whole-of-industry strategy to achieve these targets; and engage effectively with stakeholders on actions and progress. Through a process of consultation and review, eight environmental, economic and social topics have been assessed as being most important to customers, cotton growers, industry organisations, regional communities and other stakeholders. Each topic aligns with relevant United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In regards to waterway health and the environment, the topics of most importance include: water, less drops per crop; carbon, acting on climate change; biodiversity, benefiting from biodiversity; and pesticides, efficient responsible pesticide use. Australian cotton has the reputation of being the most [...]

Stanmore Coal: Reduce and reuse Stanmore Coal installed a new pumping system at its Isaac Plains processing plant in 2019 which uses mine-affected water instead of raw water, saving up to 200 megalitres of raw water per year. The pumping system assists in reducing the inventory of mine-affected water on the site, while also consuming around 1,000 tonnes of salt per year associated with the higher salinity mine water. Prior to the installation of the new pumping system, the Isaac Plains processing plant sourced water from external raw water suppliers to make-up for water  that remained in coal as a result of the washing process. After washing, the moisture content of coal is increased by around 5 per cent and this additional  moisture remains in the coal when it is exported.

Anglo American: Reducing freshwater use for sustainable mining Anglo American’s Metallurgical Coal business has commissioned the first of two planned reverse osmosis (RO) water treatment plants at its Aquila project in the Bowen Basin, with the aim of reducing the use of freshwater in its mining operations. The Aquila project is an underground metallurgical coal mine currently under construction which will extend the life of Anglo American’s Grasstree underground mine near Middlemount in Central Queensland. Aquila is on track for first coal in early 2022 and will utilise the associated Coal Handling and Preparation Plant (CHPP) on site – part of Anglo American’s Capcoal complex. The freshwater allocation is approximately 6.2 megalitres (ML) a day, which includes supplying water to the town of Middlemount*. In the RO process, water passes semi-permeable thin membranes with pores small enough to allow the water to flow through the membrane while rejecting larger particles or contaminants. At Aquila, the new RO plant filters mine affected water (MAW) - water already used in the mining process. This first plant is producing 2 ML of treated water per day for the construction of Aquila and the planned second RO treatment plant will produce 2.4 ML of treated water, [...]