Sustainability

Environment

Our projects continued to operate within all statutory regulations and license conditions during the year.  Reduced emissions and energy saving programs were again a key area of focus for our operations, with Panoramic scheduled to report under the NPI (National Pollutants Inventroy), EEO (Energy Efficiency Opportunities) and NGER (National Greenhouse Energy Reporting) programs.  We have undertaken site energy efficiency audits to review the way energy is utilised at our sites. These audits also identified a number of opportunities for energy efficiency improvements in the future.
Following a review of our mine closure planning process, a new “staged” approach has been implemented.  As our operations mature, the level of detail contained within the site closure plan increases.   We believe that this “adaptive management” approach will ultimately deliver improved long-term environmental outcomes for our stakeholders. It will also allow for an agreed set of mine closure criteria to be developed that facilitate the timely relinquishment of all leases and licences following closure.
A comprehensive stakeholder engagement process was undertaken during the year as part of a proposal seeking amendments to current management and mine closure strategies for the Savannah tailings storage facility.  In developing the proposal submission, a ‘risk based’ approach was utilised to identify key issues considered to be of potential high risk to the environment. Issues such as surface and groundwater management, geochemical assessments, aquatic ecological impact investigations and TSF cover design options were addressed during this process.

We believe that both the consultative process and the use of a risk based approach have been central in demonstrating to our stakeholders that our proposal will deliver improved environmental outcomes and acceptable levels of risk.

Please refer to the Reports link for the Company's latest Public Report on Energy Efficiency Opportunities.