2017 and could shut them down as early as March 2016. On 7 October 2015, it was confirmed that the Leigh Creek mining operations would cease on 17 November 2015. Leigh Creek Energy Project In 2015 the media announced that another coal project at Leigh Creek was in the planning process. Leigh Creek Energy Project (LCEP), proposed by the ASX listed company Leigh Creek Energy, intends to extract gas from Leigh Creek's coal seams by drilling injection and extraction wells and igniting the coal underground using a process known as in-situ coal gasification. The company has proposed that the gas would then be exported to Australia's eastern states via existing pipeline networks. An additional plant to produce ammonium nitrate fertilizer and explosives for use in the mining sector would also be built adjacent to the coal gasification plant. Environment The Aroona Sanctuary is one of the best examples of environmental rehabilitation in Australia. By 1985, the lands of the Aroona Sanctuary were badly degraded. Massive numbers of rabbits and feral goats depleted the native vegetation. The vegetation losses led to extensive sheet and gully erosion. Widespread soil erosion also led to rapid silting of Aroona Dam. The lands around Leigh Creek showed serious sign of desertification. Overgrazing and the unrestricted use of 4-wheel vehicles, motorbikes and horses also added to land degradation. For example, the local Pony Club occupied an area near Windy Creek. A large number of horses were left grazing uncontrolled and totally destroyed all vegetation. "Dust devils" originating in this area were visible from a long distance. Sand drifts started to occur and rainwater was no longer able to penetrate into the soil layer, because of the talcum powder like structure of the soil surface. A large-scale environmental rehabilitation project was started in late 1985, under the direction of Beat Odermatt, Environmental Scientist for ETSA. Rehabilitation was done by destroying rabbits and feral goats and by undertaking erosion control works, such as disk pitting and the construction of water velocity reducers. The removal of rabbits and feral goats helped the native vegetation to return. Over 1 million trees and shrubs emerged in the degraded area and silting of waterways and Aroona Dam was drastically reduced. In 1995, the Government of South Australia declared the area around Aroona Dam a Flora and Fauna Sanctuary. Within less than 10 years, an extremely badly degraded area had recovered to a