Taking Mine Rehabilitation to New Heights with Heavy-Duty Drone Technology

Rehabilitating land after mining is rarely straightforward. Large project areas, steep terrain and limited access can make spreading native seed slow, labour-intensive and hazardous. At the Liddell coal closure project in New South Wales’ Hunter Valley, XAG agricultural drone technology provided a practical solution for terrain that made conventional methods virtually impossible.

Working across multiple separated sites, XAG Australia drone operator John Santos and the operations team used the XAG P100 Pro agricultural drone to spread a native seed mix over a combined 60 hectares in just two days. In areas with difficult access and severe inclines, conventional ground-based equipment and manual seeding were not viable.

Equipped with the RevoCast P3 spreading system, the P100 Pro allowed the team to distribute seed from the air rather than sending personnel or heavy machinery into steep, unstable and hard-to-reach rehabilitation areas. The drone could be deployed across the separated work sites without requiring heavy machinery to traverse the challenging terrain. This reduced the time and effort required to move between application areas while limiting ground disturbance.

It also provided an important safety advantage. Operators could manage the application from a safer position without crews needing to descend into hazardous sections of the mine site. By reducing personnel exposure and avoiding the slow movement of machinery across difficult ground, the operation could be completed more safely and efficiently.

Accurate flight planning helped the team follow designated application areas and achieve consistent seed distribution across the varied landscape. For rehabilitation projects involving multiple or irregularly shaped sites, autonomous operation provides the flexibility to work efficiently across different areas and adapt to changing site conditions, with some individual sites completed in a single day.

Completing 60 hectares in two days demonstrates how high-capacity drone technology can shorten the application stage of rehabilitation programs. This helps project teams make the most of suitable weather and seeding windows, reduces reliance on large ground crews and minimises soil disturbance caused by heavy vehicles moving over recovering land.

The quality of the operation was reflected in the client’s feedback:

“Your work from last year has been among the best we have seen. There were no striping issues, and the areas covered showed 100% regrowth with no patchy spots.”

The native seed mix forms an important part of the broader ecological restoration process. Re-establishing native vegetation can support biodiversity, strengthen ecosystem resilience and create habitat for local wildlife. While successful rehabilitation also relies on site preparation, rainfall, soil conditions and ongoing monitoring, fast and uniform seed distribution provides a strong foundation for regrowth.

Agricultural drones were initially developed to improve farm productivity, but their potential extends well beyond the paddock. Their aerial access, autonomous operation, high-capacity payloads and precise spreading capabilities make XAG agricultural drones well suited to complex mine closure, ecological restoration and land rehabilitation programs.

The Liddell coal closure project demonstrates that even when difficult terrain brings conventional machinery to a standstill, rehabilitation can continue moving forward.

Explore the Latest XAG Aerial Spreading Technology

This project was completed using the XAG P100 Pro. For current aerial spreading and land rehabilitation applications, explore the XAG P150 Max agricultural drone, featuring an 80 kg payload and a high-capacity spreading system designed for precise, efficient operation.

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