To minimise the effects of coal mining, decent environmental management is necessary to stabilise the land so it is productive after mine closure. The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) regulates that a mine reclamation plan is mandatory for the mine permit holder. This is a requirement of the permit application. Once the mine reclamation plan is approved, the mine permit holder has to place a bond in the national bank to cover the mine reclamation costs. MEMR also sets out the criteria for successful reclamation to be accomplished by the mine reclamation program. This includes area compliance, land re-contouring, revegetation and final completion. This research aimed to discover what mine reclamation period is required to successfully meet the criteria. The data was taken from the results of evaluations conducted by MEMR between 2009 and 2018 for 30 coal companies with a total of 277 reclamation areas. The data was analysed with Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA and Mann–Whitney test using STATISTICA 13.0 software. The data showed that, based on the criteria, successful reclamation criteria were most achieved in six years (i.e. 35.63% of the 277 reclamation areas). The data also showed that, for most companies, canopy cover is the most difficult criterion to achieve. Species selection and plant spacing were factors affecting achievement of the canopy cover criterion.