Investors sought for olive mine site project
Planting olives on contaminated mine land sounds like a stunt. Look closer and the olive turns out to be unusually well suited to ruined, hostile ground — which is exactly why the idea keeps resurfacing around the world.
The proposal reads like a provocation: grow olives on the tailings of an old mine, land written off as dead. Yet the people behind such schemes are not dreamers so much as opportunists in the good sense. They have noticed that the olive tolerates conditions that would finish almost any orchard crop, and that the world has a great deal of poisoned, abandoned ground looking for a use.
Why the olive, specifically
The olive is a survivor by design. It shrugs off drought, thrives in thin, alkaline, stony soils, and puts down roots that stabilise loose, eroding surfaces. On a raw mine dump — dry, poor, exposed — those are precisely the traits you need just to establish living cover. Few productive trees will even take on such ground; the olive is one of the very few that might, which is what makes the idea more than a gimmick.
The phytoremediation question
The bolder claim is that the trees do not merely survive the land but heal it — drawing up or locking down contaminants, rebuilding soil, turning a liability into an asset. This is real science, called phytoremediation, but it demands caution. Which metals, in what soil, taken up into which part of the plant, and is the resulting fruit or oil safe to sell? Those are testable questions, and any serious project answers them with assays before it makes promises. De-hyped, the honest position is: promising, unproven per site, and never assume the oil is food-safe without testing.
What it would take to work
Turning a contaminated site into a working grove needs patience and capital: years of establishment before payback, careful monitoring of what ends up in the fruit, and an honest decision about whether the oil is destined for the table or strictly for non-food uses like lamp oil, soap or biofuel. The land-repair value may outweigh the crop value — and that is fine, so long as nobody blurs the two.
| Setting | Old mine tailings, arid far-west NSW |
|---|---|
| Why olives | Drought-, heat- and poor-soil tolerant; roots stabilise ground |
| Bigger idea | Phytoremediation — plants that clean or stabilise land |
| Key test | Metal uptake into fruit/oil; food-safety assays |
| Payoff timeline | Years to establish before any yield |
| Honest use | Land repair first; oil for food only if tested clean |
Reading a project like this
- Ask for soil and fruit assays, not just artist’s impressions of a green grove.
- Separate land-repair value from crop value — both can be real.
- Expect a long establishment before any return.
- Be clear whether the oil is food-grade or industrial.
Olives on marginal and contaminated land: common questions
Can olives really grow on old mine sites?
They are among the few productive trees that might. Olives tolerate drought, heat and thin, poor, alkaline soils, and their roots help stabilise loose, eroding ground — traits that suit degraded mining land.
What is phytoremediation?
Using plants to clean up or stabilise polluted land, either by taking up contaminants or by locking them in place and rebuilding soil. It is genuine science, but results depend heavily on the specific metals and site.
Is oil from such trees safe to eat?
Never assume so. Whether contaminants reach the fruit and oil must be tested with assays for each site. Some projects only ever intend the oil for non-food uses such as soap, lamp oil or biofuel.
Why plant olives instead of other crops?
Most productive trees simply will not establish on dry, poor, contaminated ground. The olive’s exceptional tolerance of hardship makes it one of the few candidates worth trying there.
Is the value the oil or the land?
Often the land. Repairing and stabilising a written-off site can be worth more than the modest crop. A well-run project is honest about which benefit it is really selling.
I like these schemes and I distrust the brochures. The olive genuinely is the tree you reach for when the ground is hopeless — nothing else I know will colonise a dry mine dump and hold it together. But the moment someone offers you extra virgin pressed from mine-site fruit, ask to see the metal assays. Land repair is a fine and honest goal on its own; you don’t need to promise gourmet oil on top of it, and you shouldn’t until the lab says so.
Drawn from the horticulture of olives on marginal land and the science of phytoremediation.