Dargues Development consent modification approved

 

On 20 December, we received approval for a development consent modification (MOD5) at our Dargues Mine from the NSW Government Department of Planning and Environment.

MOD5 increases our permitted processing cap for the mine from 355ktpa to 415ktpa. Our application was put on public exhibition in September last year, with responses to questions prepared and submitted in October.

General Manager – Dargues, Angus Wyllie spoke about the approval and how it increased gold production for the December quarter.

“Our December quarter production forecast did not consider MOD5 approval in 2022. Receiving the approval allowed our site teams to maximise the utilisation of the mill for the last 11 days of the quarter,” Angus said.

Additional modifications to our consent approved in MOD5 included:

• the construction and use of a water storage dam for the storage of supernatant water from the Tailings Storage Facility and water from the other on- and off-site sources
• emergency trucking of water to the mine
• various administrative amendments to the project approval.

Angus also spoke about our commitment to the Braidwood and Majors Creek communities, highlighting the constructive forum we have for regular and transparent dialogue with our neighbours.

“We’ve been a proud member of this community since we acquired Dargues in 2020, employing a predominately local workforce with a 26% female contingent,” Angus said.

“We have and will continue to make a pronounced effort to listen to the concerns of our neighbours through our Community Consultative Committee (CCC) and respond promptly and fairly. The constructive relationship we share with our CCC has led to an 86% reduction in community complaints since we acquired the mine.

“The CCC will remain a platform for robust and honest conversations with our community as we move into the next phase of operations at Dargues with this modification ,” Angus concluded.

For more information about our Dargues Mine, see the ‘Our Operations’ page or refer to our quarterly activities reports, available on the ‘Company reporting’ page.