Typical rehabilitation programmes for spoil piles and waste dumps in open cut coal mines involve the spreading of topsoil to assist vegetation growth. In the early years of rehabilitation before a protective vegetation cover has been established, this topsoil is susceptible to erosion during rainfall events. Since the long term success of rehabil- itation procedures is sensitive to adequate topsoil maintenance and since, on many mine sites, topsoil is a scarce resource, erosion losses of topsoil (particularly once fert- ilised) can severely restrict rehabilitation Measures.