Amendment history Table 7 provides the amendment history for L7922/1989/5. Table 7: Licence amendments.
Instrument Issued Amendment
L7922/1989/5 11 June 2015 Licence amendment to extend the expiry date from 20 June 2015 until 20 November 2015,
L7922/1989/5 12 November 2015
Licence amendment to extend the expiry date from November 2015 until 20 June 2016. Conversion to template vs 2.9. Monitoring frequency for groundwater was reduced from quarterly to six-monthly and visual inspections of the TSF from 12 hourly to weekly whilst in care and maintenance.
L7922/1989/5 16 August 2018
Amendment Notice 1 Installation and operation of: A cone crusher; A gold gravity concentration circuit (Gekko Gold plant) for mechanical removal of gold from up to 500,000 tpa of gold ore; A gold room to produce gold bars; Dewatering and storage of intermediate gold product from the gravity gold separation circuit; and A thickener and geofilters for reclaiming and reusing process water.
Licence: L7922/1989/5 IR-T08 Amendment Notice (Major) template v2.0 (July 2017) 12
Location and receptors The site is located approximately 30 km south of Karratha. Figure 3 depicts the regional location of the Premises.
Figure 3: Radio Hill Regional Location
Table 8 below lists the relevant sensitive land uses in the vicinity of the Prescribed Premises which may be receptors relevant to the proposed amendment.
Licence: L7922/1989/5 IR-T08 Amendment Notice (Major) template v2.0 (July 2017) 13
Table 8: Receptors and distance from activity boundary
Residential and sensitive premises Distance from Prescribed Premises
Weymul community Approximately 6.8 km to the southwest
Mt Welcome pastoral station Approximately 3 km north-northwest
Karratha Approximately 17 km north
Table 9 below lists the relevant environmental receptors in the vicinity of the Prescribed Premises which may be receptors relevant to the proposed amendment. Table 9: Environmental receptors and distance from activity boundary
Environmental receptors Distance from Prescribed Premises
Threatened and priority flora None located within the premises boundary
Threatened and priority fauna The lined soil-crevice skink (reptile) (P4) is certain to be located within the premises boundary. This is located near the railway line away from the operational areas of the Gekko plant and supporting infrastructure.
Horseflat land system Threatened Ecosystem Buffer The premise is located within the buffer
Table 10 below lists the relevant groundwater and surface water receptors in the vicinity of the Prescribed Premises which may be receptors relevant to the proposed amendment. Table 10: Groundwater and surface water receptors
Water receptors Distance from Prescribed Premises
Groundwater Based on the latest water levels in on site bores, the depth to water ranges from 2.79 to 14.66 metres below ground level. The groundwater is fresh/marginal salinity with TDS levels of approximately 600 mg/L. The site is located within the Pilbara Groundwater Area proclaimed under the Rights in Water and Irrigation Act 1914 (RiWI Act)
Ephemeral surface water systems Two ephemeral surface water system are located on site. One surface water system is located north between the geotubes and the pit. The other surface water system is located north of the environmental dam. The site is located within the Pilbara Surface Water Area proclaimed under the RiWI Act.
Risk assessment Tables 11 and 12 below describe the Risk Events associated with the amendment consistent with the Guidance Statement: Risk Assessments. Both tables identify whether the emissions present a material risk to public health or the environment, requiring regulatory controls.
Licence: L7922/1989/5 IR-T08 Amendment Notice (Major) template v2.0 (July 2017) 14
Table 11: Risk assessment for proposed amendments during construction Risk Event
Consequence rating
Likelihood rating
Risk Reasoning
Source/Activities
Potential emissions
Potential receptors
Potential pathway
Potential adverse impacts
Cat 5 Processing or beneficiation of metallic or nonmetallic ore
Construction of Gekko plant and supporting infrastructure
Dust: associated with construction activities
No residential receptors in close proximity
Air: Transport through air then deposition
Health and amenity impacts
Slight Rare Low
The closest residential receptor is located approximately 3 km from the Premises.
Noting the lack of receptors, the risk of dust impacts during construction has been determined as low.
No threatened or priority flora on site
No Priority Ecological Community ‘Horseflat land system of the Roebourne Plains’ have been recorded on site
Impact to vegetation health
Slight Rare Low
No vegetation units associated with the Priority Ecological Community ‘Horseflat land system of the Roebourne Plains’ have been recorded on site
Noting the lack of receptors, the risk of dust impacts during construction has been determined as low.
Noise: associated with construction activities
No residential receptors in close proximity
Air: Noise within the frequency range of the human ear
Health and amenity impacts
Slight Rare Low
The closest residential receptor is located approximately 3 km from the Premises.
Noting the lack of receptors, the risk of noise impacts during construction has been determined as low.
Licence: L7922/1989/5 IR-T08 Amendment Notice (Major) template v2.0 (July 2017) 15
Table 12: Risk assessment for proposed amendments during operation Risk Event
Consequence rating
Likelihood rating
Risk Reasoning
Source/Activities
Potential emissions
Potential receptors
Potential pathway
Potential adverse impacts
Cat 5 Processing or beneficiation of metallic or nonmetallic ore
Operation of crushing infrastructure and gecko gold plant. Movement of ore and product stockpiles
Dust: associated with ore handling and processing
No residential receptors in close proximity
Air: Transport through air then deposition
Health and amenity impacts
Slight Rare Low
The closest residential receptor is located approximately 3 km from the Premises.
Noting the lack of receptors, the risk of dust impacts during operation has been determined as low.
No threatened or priority flora on site
No vegetation units associated with the Priority Ecological Community ‘Horseflat land system of the Roebourne Plains’ have been recorded on site
Impact to vegetation health
Slight Rare Low
No vegetation units associated with the Priority Ecological Community ‘Horseflat land system of the Roebourne Plains’ have been recorded on site.
Noting the lack of receptors, the risk of dust impacts during construction has been determined as low.
Noise: associated with the operation of machinery
No residential receptors in close proximity
Air: Noise within the frequency range of the human ear
Health and amenity impacts
Slight Rare Low
The closest residential receptor is located approximately 3 km from the Premises.
Noting the lack of receptors, the risk of noise impacts during operation has been determined as low.
Waste: Seepage of leachate from product stockpiles
Seepage of
Underlying groundwater
Seepage of leachate containing elevated metal contaminants
Impacts to groundwater quality
Moderate Rare Low The processing infrastructure and dewatering infrastructure is located concrete bunded areas. The exception is the geofabric filter (geotubes) which are located on HDPE lining. The drainage sump for the Geotubes is concrete
Licence: L7922/1989/5 IR-T08 Amendment Notice (Major) template v2.0 (July 2017) 16
process water containing metals and other contaminants
lined.
Noting that seepage will be contained, the risk has been determined as low.
Waste: Contaminated stormwater
Surface water systems and groundwater with beneficial use
Run-off during storm events.
Impacts on the quality of surface water systems and freshwater ecosystems
Slight Rare
Low All processing and dewatering infrastructure is contained within concrete bunding. Infrastructure located outside The geofabric filters (geotubes) will be located on HDPE and surrounding by a 1m windrow to divert clean stormwater around the facility.
Any stormwater generated within the processing and dewatering areas will be captured and directed back into the process.
Water generated in the coarse intermediate product storage area 2 will be directed to the HDPE lined environmental dam.
Noting the information above, the risk has been determined as low.
Waste: Leaks and spills of slurry/process water due to pipeline failure
Surface water systems and groundwater with beneficial use
Localized soils and vegetation
Run-off during storm events. Seepage through the soil profile to groundwater
Discharge of slurry/return water containing elevated metal contaminants
Moderate rare low The slurry pipeline and return water pipelines between the thickener and the geofabric filters are located within v-drains with instrumentation to detect leaks. Noting the Licence Holders controls, the risk has been determined as low.
Licence: L7922/1989/5 IR-T08 Amendment Notice (Major) template v2.0 (July 2017) 17
Decision The Licence Holder’s registered business address has been amended. The prescribed premises approved production/design capacity has been increased to 500 000 tonnes per annual period. Conditions 1.3.6 to 1.39 have been inserted into the Licence. These conditions relate to the construction and reporting requirements for the newly installed infrastructure. Condition 1.3.10 has been inserted into the Licence to verify the integrity of the HDPE lining system within the environmental dam.
Licence Holder’s comments The Licence Holder was provided with the draft Amendment Notice on 3 August 2018. Comments received from the Licence Holder have been considered by the Delegated Officer as shown in Appendix 2.
Amendment
1. The Licence Holder’s registered business address is amended from the address below:
10 Abbotsford Street WEST LEEDERVILLE WA 6008
To the new address below:
Fox Radio Hill Pty Ltd Suite 1, Ground Floor, 11 Ventnor Avenue West Perth WA 6005
2. The prescribed premises category of the Licence is amended by the deletion of the text shown in strikethrough and the insertion of the bold text shown in underline below.
Prescribed premises category Schedule 1 of the Environmental Protection Regulations 1987
Category number
Category description
Category production or design capacity
Approved Premises production or design capacity
5 Processing or beneficiation of metallic or non-metallic ore: premises on which – (a) metallic or non-metallic ore is crushed, ground, milled or otherwise processed; (b) tailings from metallic or non-metallic ore are reprocessed; or (c) tailings or residue from metallic or nonmetallic ore are discharged into a containment cell or dam.
50,000 tonnes per annual period
50,000 500 000 tonnes per annual period
6 Mine dewatering 50,000 tonnes or more per annual period
50,000 tonnes per annual period
85 Sewage facility premises – (a) on which sewage is treated (excluding septic tanks); or (b) from which treated sewage is discharged onto land or into waters.
More than 20 but less than 100 cubic metres per day
45 cubic metres per day
Licence: L7922/1989/5 IR-T08 Amendment Notice (Major) template v2.0 (July 2017) 18
3. The Licence is amended by the insertion of condition 1.3.6 to 1.3.10 below.
Infrastructure and equipment 1.3.6 The Licence Holder must install and undertake the Works for the infrastructure and equipment: specified in Column 1; to the requirements specified in Column 2; and at the location specified in Column 3 of Table 1.3.4 below. 1.3.7 The Licence Holder must not depart from the requirements specified in Column 2 of table 1.3.4 except: a) where such departure does not increase risks to public health, public amenity or the environment; and b) all other Conditions in this Licence are still satisfied. 1.3.8 Subject to Condition 1.3.7, within 30 days of the completion of the Works specified in Column 1 of Table 1.3.4, the Licence Holder must provide to the CEO engineering certification from a suitably qualified professional confirming each item of infrastructure or component of infrastructure specified in Column 1 of Table 1.3.4 below has been constructed with no material defects and to the requirements specified in Column 2. 1.3.9 Where a departure from the requirements specified in Column 2 of Table 1.3.4 occurs and is of a type allowed by Condition 1.3.7, the Licence Holder must provide to the CEO a description of, and explanation for, the departure along with the certification required by Condition 1.3.8. Table 1.3.4: Infrastructure and equipment requirements table
Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Infrastructure/ Equipment Requirements (design and construction) Site plan reference Cone crusher (tertiary crusher) Installed adjacent to existing primary and secondary crusher on a flat stable pad Map of Stage 1 infrastructure in Schedule 1
Gekko gravity gold plant and slurry pipeline
Installed within a concrete bunded area with all drainage directed to a concrete lined sump
Sump pump installed to direct drainage back into the gravity gold processing plant.
HDPE pipeline to direct slurry into dewatering infrastructure.
Map of Stage 1 infrastructure in Schedule 1
Licence: L7922/1989/5 IR-T08 Amendment Notice (Major) template v2.0 (July 2017) 19
Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Infrastructure/ Equipment Requirements (design and construction) Site plan reference Hydrocyclone and dewatering screen
Thickener
Conveyor
Process Water Tank
All infrastructure to be located within a concrete bunded area adjacent to the gravity gold plant concrete area.
Drainage within the concrete bunded area to be directed to a concrete lined sump.
Sump pump installed to direct drainage in the sump back to the gravity plant or thickener.
Conveyor installed to direct coarser intermediate goldbearing product from the hydrocyclone and dewatering screen to the adjacent coarse intermediate product storage area 1.
HDPE pipeline installed to direct process water from the thickener to the process water tank.
Process water tank with a minimum capacity of 113 kilolitres
Level control installed within the process water tank, linked to the make-up water valve and geofabric filters (geotubes) sump pump.
Slurry and return water pipelines
HDPE PN 10 pipelines installed between the thickener and the geofabric filters (geotubes)
Slurry pipeline to be installed with two flow meters; one immediately at the thickener underflow pump discharge, and the other at the geofabric filters (geotubes) linked to a differential flow alarm connected to the control room).
Slurry pipeline and return water pipeline installed in Vdrain, which includes sumps that have been sized to collectively contain up to 12 hours of thickener underflow production
Coarse intermediate product storage area 1 (wet)
Concrete bunded area located adjacent to the gravity plant and dewatering infrastructure concrete areas.
Drainage within the concrete area to be directed to a concrete lined sump.
Sump to be equipped with a sump pump (float on/off) and 63 mm poly pipe (PN12) to direct drainage back to the thickener.
Licence: L7922/1989/5 IR-T08 Amendment Notice (Major) template v2.0 (July 2017) 20
Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Infrastructure/ Equipment Requirements (design and construction) Site plan reference Coarse intermediate product storage area 2 (dry) Compacted base constructed with borrow material (300 to 500 mm thick). Perimeter drainage and windrows to divert clean stormwater around the storage area.
Area to be levelled and graded to slope to the northwest towards the existing ROM surface water interception drains (unlined) that report to the Environmental Dam.
Geofabric filters (geotubes)
Installed on a HDPE lining system.
Site graded so that drainage is directed to a concrete lined sump.
Sump pump to direct return water back to the thickener via the return water pipelines.
1m windrow to be installed to divert clean stormwater around the facility.
1.3.10 Prior to the commencement of operations, the Licence Holder must provide to the CEO engineering certification from a suitably qualified professional confirming the integrity of the environmental Dam’s HDPE lining system as suitable for containment.
4. The Licence is amended by the insertion of the Map of Stage 1 infrastructure below.
Licence: L7922/1989/5 IR-T08 Amendment Notice (Major) template v2.0 (July 2017) 21
Map of Stage 1 infrastructure The location of the stage 1 infrastructure in relation to existing site infrastructure is depicted in the map below.
Licence: L7922/1989/5 IR-T08 Amendment Notice (Major) template v2.0 (July 2017) 22
Appendix 1: Key documents Document title In text ref Availability 1 Licence L7922/1989/5 – Radio Hill Mine Site L7922/1989/5 accessed at www.dwer.wa.gov.au 2 Licence amendment application and supporting documentation
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DWER records: A1662392 A1662391 A1662390 A1662389 A1662388 A1662387
3 Licence amendment further information
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DWER records: A170474
4 DER, July 2015. Guidance Statement: Regulatory principles. Department of Environment Regulation, Perth.
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accessed at www.dwer.wa.gov.au
5 DER, October 2015. Guidance Statement: Setting conditions. Department of Environment Regulation, Perth.
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6 DER, November 2016. Guidance Statement: Risk Assessments. Department of Environment Regulation, Perth.
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7 DER, November 2016. Guidance Statement: Decision Making. Department of Environment Regulation, Perth.
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Licence: L7922/1989/5 IR-T08 Amendment Notice (Major) template v2.0 (July 2017) 23
Appendix 2: Summary of Licence Holder comments The Licence Holder was provided with the draft Amendment Notice on 03/08/2018 for review and comment. The Licence Holder responded on 06/08/2018, the following comments were received on the draft Amendment Notice: Condition Summary of Licence Holder comment DWER response
Condition: 1.3.6 – 1.3.9 Table: 1.3.4 "Process water tank with a minimum capacity of 113,000 kilolitres" This was a mistake in the Artemis submission, it should have been litres not kilolitres, ie 113kL (or 113,000L). Sorry for this mistake with the units.
Noted. Amendment made.
Condition: 1.3.6 – 1.3.9 Table: 1.3.4 "Slurry pipeline and return water pipeline installed in V-drain which includes sumps sized to contain up to 12 hours of thickener underflow production" We need to clarify, that the collective total of the v-drains and sumps will contain the 12-hour production (not each individual sump / v-drain). Noted. Text amended to clarify. The new text reads: “Slurry pipeline and return water pipeline installed in V-drain, which includes sumps that have been sized to collectively contain up to 12 hours of thickener underflow production"
Page 7
"The V-drain will include sumps sized to contain up to 24 hours of thickener underflow production"
This should be 12-hour capacity, as we have in Table 1.3.4, for Condition 1.3.7 - 1.3.9
Noted. Text on page 7 amended by changing “24” to “12”.
Page 9
Should we add ‘freshwater’ to Column 4 of Table 4 to "ANZECC/ARMCANZ 95% trigger values (mg/L)" ?
Noted. Column 4 amended to include the word “freshwater”
Page 10
We have submitted a Mining Proposal to the DMIRS for the construction/operation of the Gekko plant, this is Reg ID 75362. We have an approved Project Management Plan (PMP) for the construction work, this is Reg ID: PM-093300691. We are preparing the PMP for the operation of the Radio Hill plant (including the Gekko Gold Plant) and this PMP will be submitted soon
Noted. Text amended accordingly. “Mining Proposal ID 75362 for Radio Hill Project Miniing Proposal Revision B approved by the Department of Mines Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS) including project management plan PM-093-300691 for the construction work. A project management plan for the operation of radio Hill plant is under preparation for approval by DMIRS.”
Page 11
Will this new Licence become v6 or remain as v5...the 'Instrument' column has L7922/1989/5
It will remain as V 5. The numbering is updated when the licence is re-assessed.
Page 14
Table 11, Cat 5 / Dust / Potential receptors: should state that no PECs have been recorded on site, this is what the 'Reasoning' column states. On the Page 15, the discussion of PECs on this risk event is correct, therefore please use this wording for Page 14.
Noted. Text on page 14 amended to state that no PECs have been recorded on site.
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Page 17
We requested the address be changed to "Suite 1, 11 Ventnor Avenue - West Perth, 6005, WA" via emails between Michael Williams (Artemis) and Shelley Bee (DWER) in Feb 2018, could we please correct this... the address was instead changed to a Sydney address, therefore - could we amend this to our West Perth address? Our correct address is on the front page of your DWER letter.
Noted. Address on page 17 amended. Fox Radio Hill Pty Ltd Suite 1, Ground Floor, 11 Ventnor Avenue West Perth WA 6005
ARV Price at posting:
7.4¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Not Held