Agnico Eagle mining company working to remediate NT’s Cosmo mine

The Agnico Eagle mining company working to remediate Cosmo mine, about 130km south of Darwin.

Alex is helping to transform the former Cosmo mine site into a healthy ecosystem. Picture: Supplied

Meet Alex.

Alex is part of the Agnico Eagle mining company working to remediate Cosmo mine, about 130km south of Darwin.

Remediation is the final stage in a mining operation to repair environmental impacts to the land, as required by the NT government.

The company has invested $80 million towards rehabilitation, which not only ensures the land is returned in a condition that is suitable for pastoral use as intended, but also creates jobs for Territorians.

“This is an $80 million commitment without generating any income – this is a fair commitment from responsible company looking to return the area back to the best condition that we can,” says Alex.

Cosmo mine open pit has been backfilled with waste rock and treated water to form a 20m water cap. Picture: Supplied

Mineralisation was identified in the 1800s when gold was discovered as the Australian Overland Telegraph Line was being completed.

“The last bit of mining here was finished up in 2019 and 2020 and since then we’ve been going through a rehabilitation program back filling some of the open pits, managing the water, flows and managing some of the previous, disturbances.

There has been an increase in wildlife on site like this Barking Owl. Picture: Supplied

“We have a very stringent monitoring program and we work very closely with the regulator to go through and ensure that what we’re doing is not only not impacting but also reducing the amount of exceedances from these historical work areas in an attempt to reduce the impact from these legacy mines.

“Just in the last 12 months we’ve seen a quite an increase in active wildlife on the site … we’ve got everything from crocodiles, buffalo, frill neck lizards, and lots of beautiful birds getting around. It’s been a really nice change to see that fauna so abundant around the work site so the good rehabilitation work being completed here ensures that the land can go back to pastoral use in the future.”