Carrington West Wing Modification of DA 450-10-2003 30 January 2013 - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Carrington West Wing Modification of DA 450-10-2003 30 January 2013

Hunter Valley Operations - Overview • Hunter Valley Operations is the largest and the oldest of the Coal and Allied sites. • First production began in 1968 • Located 24km north of Singleton. • A multi-seam, multiple pit mining operation. • Production in 2011 reached 12.2Mt • 1100 direct employees plus contractors • Produces export thermal and semisoft coking coal which is railed to the port of Newcastle.

Hunter Valley Operations History • 1968 : Mining commenced at Howick • 1971 : Mining commenced at Lemington • Insert site plan – noise and AQ • 1979 : Mining commenced in Hunter Valley No. 1 • 1991 : Mining commenced in Hunter Valley No. 2 • 2000 : Howick (Novacoal) and Hunter Valley (C&A) merged to create Hunter Valley Operations. Acquisition of Lemington Mine from Exxon. • 2001 : Lemington merged into HVO 2 1 3 Hunter Valley Operations 4 Production Mt (100% basis) 12.4 11.9 12.2 12.0 11.2 10.9 10.8 10.1 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 3 Presentation title 30 January 2013

HSEC • Coal & Allied mines operate in close proximity to a diversity of near neighbours, amidst significant competing land uses and under the tightest of regulatory controls. • We operate under the Rio Tinto HSEQ-Management System (ISO14001). • Our noise, dust, cultural heritage and community engagement programs represent industry best practice. • Our goal remains Zero Harm, in all of its forms. All Injury Frequency Rate 1.00 AIFR ratio; number of injuries and medical cases per 200,000 hours worked 0.71 0.70 0.68 0.67 0.67 0.55 0.43 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Rehabilitation

Community Relations A focus on sustainable communities Building relationships and investing in community partnerships We set out to build relationships with all of our communities that are characterised by mutual respect, active partnership and long term commitment. Our operations are part of local communities, which include Aboriginal communities, employees and contractors, near neighbours, as well as local businesses who provide goods and services to our operations. Our operations have an economic, social and environmental impact on neighbouring communities. In turn, the communities' concerns, needs, aspirations and activities impact on our business. Consultation and engagement with communities is essential and occurs in many formats. • Since its inception in 1999, the Coal & Allied Community Development Fund has Community contributed > $11 million to projects in the local community. investment • Projects target social and education, economic and environmental objectives. • Aboriginal Development Consultative Committee (ADCC) has been supporting Working with our education, training, community and business development projects for Aboriginal people in the Upper Hunter Valley since 2006 - more than $1.7 million invested. Aboriginal community • Our Indigenous employment strategy aims to achieve five per cent Indigenous employment at Rio Tinto Coal Australia by 2013. • Our cultural heritage programme has been developed to ensure we meet our internal, statutory and community obligations with respect to the consultation, Cultural Heritage identification, assessment, protection and management of Aboriginal cultural heritage and enable access to land for development activities for all of our operations, projects and lands. 6

Priorities For The Day We want the day to be safe, enjoyable and interesting; Please follow any instructions from a HVO staff member • Please watch your footing around site – “Eyes on Path” • Please use handrails on stairs • Please wear your seatbelt at all times • Please wear your PPE (glasses, vest, hard hat) at all times when we are • out in the mine area. THE GOAL IS ZERO

Proposal Overview • Extension of Carrington Pit to south-west to extract 16 mt of in-situ coal •Development of overburden emplacements to the north of the extension area •Construction of flood levees, temporary diversion, groundwater barrier wall and extension of approved evaporative sink •Construction of service corridor •All other elements of the HVO Complex remain unchanged

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• Key groundwater components 10 Presentation title 30 January 2013

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Proposal Development •Detailed environmental constraints analysis •Environmental risk management workshops •Commitment to rehabilitation of Class 2 lands and return of pre- mining landform •Additional groundwater commitments •Exclusion of Aboriginal heritage site CM-CD1 and associated buffer

Proposal Need and benefits •Access to low strip ratio coal through use of existing considerable human and physical infrastructure – preventing resource sterilisation •Net production benefits to society of $482M •777 direct and indirect jobs for region •Opportunity to contemporise development consent

Consultation Approach •Consistent implementation of community engagement tools •Extensive consultation with regulators at all stages of the EA process

Consultation Key agencies Agency Matters raised Outcome NOW Groundwater – including NOW concluded that it is reasonable to assume that Hunter River base flows barrier wall would function effectively. However, it and volumetric licensing highlighted the need for the g/w barrier wall to be properly designed, installed and maintained together with strict ongoing monitoring requirements. NOW satisfied that the loss of baseflow to the Hunter River is unlikely to be significant and can be licensed and /or managed within acceptable limits. Rigorous conditions of consent recommended. OEH/EPA Air quality, noise, Aboriginal heritage site CM-CD1 excluded from mine biodiversity and Aboriginal plan. heritage Recommended a number of conditions of approval to manage potential impacts .

Consultation Key agencies Agency Matters raised Outcome DPI Rehabilitation of Rigorous conditions of consent recommended, (Agriculture; agricultural land and including preparation of Agricultural Land OASFS) cumulative impacts of Reinstatement Management Plan. mining on agricultural resource lands Recommendations adopted by DP&I and supported by Office of Agricultural Sustainability and Food Security (OASFS). DITIRIS Groundwater and Considered responses regarding residual (DRE) agricultural impacts groundwater and agricultural impacts following mine rehabilitation to be adequate and acceptable. Recommended conditions of consent which were adopted by DP&I.

Consultation Key agencies Agency Matters raised Outcome SSC Groundwater, including Rigorous management and monitoring of mining Hunter River and alluvium, operations recommended. and noise, air quality and visual impacts

Key matters Groundwater

Key matters Groundwater – Experience Mining Eastern Limb • similar geology • no detectable impact on Hunter River • no impact on GDEs • proven barrier wall can be constructed effectively • intensively monitored groundwater levels

Key matters Groundwater – West Wing – Groundwater Model • model used data from Eastern Limb Paleochannel • large dataset - one of best calibrated models in Hunter Valley • low seepage rate to pit • Hunter River baseflow - unmeasureable impact • no impacted bores or GDEs • all water take offset by water licenses

Key matters Groundwater – Barrier Wall • installed before mining of Hunter River alluvials • mixed with in-situ material with bentonite clay • designed, supervised, tested & certified by geotechnical engineers – Post Mining • void backfilled • evaporative sink captures groundwater flow

Key matters Groundwater •DP&I engaged independent peer review – Dr Kalf: • “Provided it can be demonstrated that the ultimate magnitude of seepage of groundwater from the more recent alluvium close to the river and that derived from the river itself is small in comparison to dry weather flows, then this would constitute no more than minimal harm”. • Given the presence of the mine will arrest moderately saline to brackish groundwater seepage to the river, this would seem to be more than enough compensation for the likely relatively modest flow (yet to be demonstrated) that would be direct away from the river”.

Key matters Groundwater •Potential worst case water take: • Permian aquifer – 27ML/yr • Hunter Regulated River and Unregulated Alluvial Water – 51ML/yr • Current Part 5 licence adequate to cover worst case predicted water take •Water take – held entitlements: • Water Act 1912 part 5 Licence – 220ML/yr • Hunter Regulated River – 4,165ML/yr (high security) and 479ML/yr (general security) • Appropriate disaggregation of existing Part 5 licence is required as acknowledged by NOW

Key matters Groundwater •Rigorous conditions of consent •Triggers and remediation mechanisms

Key matters Agricultural land Background •Pre-mining land class of extension area - Class 2, 3 and 4 •Out-of-pit emplacement previously mined and rehabilitated to ag land – Class 3 and 4 •All land owned by Coal & Allied Outcomes •All Class 2 land will be re-instated post mining •Detailed AIS prepared