⏩ Issue 15: Evolution Mining

Last week we looked at Anglo American and the language resource companies use about the people who live near their mines. This week, it’s the growing influence of governments over what happens at various inflection points, and in this case, at the end of a mine's life.

National and state emissions commitments have turned governments into co-investors, gatekeepers and counterparties for mining's energy transition projects, creating real opportunity for proponents, but also a new dependency, because those commitments move with budgets and elections.

Evolution Mining's Mt Rawdon operation in Queensland is the most recent example.

— Bronwyn

Source: Integrated Sustainability Report 2025 (97pp) · Published 15 October 2025 · Frameworks cited - GRI, TCFD (transitioning to IFRS S2 / ASRS AASB S2), TNFD, UNGC, ASX CGC Recommendation 7.4.

Some quick context, because the news moved fast this month. Mining at Mt Rawdon finished in 2024, and the site is now processing its remaining low-grade stockpiles, expected to conclude around September this year. So the operation is still running, but the closure question is live.

Rather than a conventional closure, Evolution and its joint venture partner ICA Partners proposed converting the end-of-life pit into the Mt Rawdon Pumped Hydro Project (MRPH), a 2 gigawatt energy storage facility, and in April 2025 the Queensland Government invested $50 million through state-owned CleanCo to progress it.

Then, on 14 July, following a Queensland Investment Corporation review of four competing pumped hydro proposals, the government confirmed it would not prioritise Mt Rawdon, backing the larger and far more expensive Borumba project instead. This week we look at what Evolution's FY25 Sustainability Report said nine months earlier.

Case studies are where companies tell their best stories, and this one was told well. First in Australia, 20,000 megawatt hours, an international showcase. And this was not a pie in the sky concept. The MRPH had Coordinated Project status, an Environmental Impact Statement lodged, a place on the National Renewable Energy Priority List and $50 million of state money committed through CleanCo. It was as advanced as a pre-investment transition project gets in this country, which is what makes the outcome so surprising. But much sat outside Evolution's control, and what failed was the counterparty everyone assumes is the safe one.

To Evolution's credit, its reporting never banked what it could not control. Even the best-positioned government partnership is still a government partnership, and Evolution’s report treated it that way.

An obligation is regulated, funded and provisioned.

An aspiration is contingent on partners, markets and governments.

Evolution kept the two separate. The $47 million in financial assurance for Mt Rawdon sat untouched by the hydro ambition, and closure planning, capping trials and rehabilitation work continued through FY25 as though the MRPH might never happen. When the government stepped back, the funded pathway was still standing. Plenty of closure sections blur this line, and let repurposing concepts soften the liability story.

A mined-out pit is a brownfield asset, with existing disturbance, existing roads, existing water infrastructure and existing approvals. No new clearing, and no new heritage surveys. Repurposing one into energy storage is proven in Queensland, where Genex converted the old Kidston gold pits into a working 250MW pumped hydro facility with government backing. Mt Rawdon would have been that model at ten times the scale, at a fraction of Borumba's cost per megawatt. The state passed anyway, without publishing its reasons, in a pipeline reshaped twice by a change of government.

That is the environment proponents now operate in.

Government partnership on transition projects is a genuine opportunity, but it is also a risk, because the counterparty's priorities can change faster than a feasibility study. Resilience looks like what Evolution did: fund and progress the conventional plan as the plan, hold the transformation as upside, and never let the aspiration leak into the provisioning. Two practical takeaways:

MRPH (Mt Rawdon Pumped Hydro Project). Evolution's proposed conversion of the Mt Rawdon open pit into a 2GW pumped hydro energy storage facility, held in a 50/50 joint venture with ICA Partners. Deprioritised by the Queensland Government on 14 July 2026.

Pumped hydro energy storage. Surplus electricity pumps water from a lower reservoir to an upper one; releasing it back through turbines generates power at peak demand. An end-of-life pit can serve as the lower reservoir, which is what made Mt Rawdon attractive.

Rehabilitation financial assurance. Money a government requires a miner to set aside so rehabilitation is funded even if the company cannot pay. Held as performance bonds, letters of credit or, in Queensland, a levy - the instrument behind Mt Rawdon's $47M.

Brownfield vs greenfield. A brownfield project reuses land already disturbed and approved; a greenfield project requires new clearing, new approvals and new heritage surveys. Repurposing Mt Rawdon's pit was a brownfield pathway; much of Borumba's footprint is not.

Coordinated Project status. A Queensland designation for projects of state significance, triggering a single whole-of-government approvals process including an Environmental Impact Statement. MRPH received it in October 2022 and submitted its EIS in May 2024.