Pumphouse Progress
Work around the pumphouse grounds is almost complete. The replica mullock heap between the building and Seddon Street has been constructed and a guard rail is currently being installed at the bottom. Guard rails are also being placed at the top of the concrete blocks on each side of the pumphouse. The paperwork required to obtain a 'Change of Use' to allow public access is currently being processed. Still to come: some minor earthworks, security fencing and signage.
The replica mullock heap is almost complete. Progress can easily be viewed from the Seddon Street gate where this picture was taken from.
Out for a Duck
It's almost duck shooting season, which means that bird numbers are steadily increasing on the tailings dam at Baxter Road.
Since comprehensive monitoring began five years ago, continually high visitation rates have been recorded each season. This year an estimated 500-600 ducks have once again made the tailings pond their temporary refuge.
Newmont Waihi Gold Environmental Department member Gary Choat is out for a duck every morning. Not that he plays cricket for New Zealand, but rather he has the job of visiting the tailings pond each day and counting the number of birds. That's not so that he can taunt duck shooters with the number of birds they won’t be getting, rather, his observations provide significant information about water management.
Newmont Waihi Gold is a signatory to the voluntary International Cyanide Management Code.
This code represents best practice for the management of cyanide used in the gold mining industry. One of the requirements of the code is to manage cyanide processes and implement appropriate measures to protect birds and other wildlife from the adverse effects of cyanide. A regular wildlife monitoring programme tells us how effective these measures are.
This monitoring includes accurate identification of species and their behaviour, wildlife counts, observations of wildlife habitat to determine how often it is visited and the ways in which it is used, and the recording of mortality rates.
The monitoring programme also provides a range of other valuable data. Observation of bird behaviour provides information on preferred habitats and conditions. This can in turn suggest final plantings and conditions that will be most attractive to bird life when the site is finally closed.
The programme includes routine monitoring of cyanide concentrations at several locations within the tailings impoundment. This provides a more detailed understanding of the risk characteristic of cyanide-bearing tailings to wildlife and helps to identify any species that may be at risk. Tens of thousands of ducks and other wildfowl that have visited the dam over the past 19 years, only five deaths have been recorded and none of these has been shown to be caused by the low levels of cyanide in the water.
Ducks don't need to worry about such things. With Waihi Gold's management programme and with Gary to check their welfare every day they get a safe place to have a holiday away from the hustle and bustle of duck shooting season.
Shy waterfowl weren’t cooperating, so we have joined together two pictures taken at the tailings pond last Thursday to show what Gary sees on a daily basis at this time of the year.
For the Birds
Data gathered on bird habitat usage in the two years from April 2005 to April 2007 for tailings pond Storage 1A shows that the large majority of birds were recorded on the water. Bird behaviour observation results recorded over the same period show almost all were resting.
Five dead birds have been recorded at Storage 1A since April 2005, with no deaths having been previously recorded. Of these, three were carcasses that appeared to have been preyed upon by hawks.
The other two were examined by specialists and found to have died of natural causes.
Staff and permanent subcontractors at Macmahon achieved an impressive 1000 days LTA free.
1000 Days LTA Free
In industry jargon they are known as LTAs – Lost Time Accidents. They are exactly that: accidents that require an employee to take time off work.
The Safety Department with each department and work area on site keep a careful record of all incidents, accidents and hazards. Not just because we do not want staff to be injured, but also because a pattern could indicate an unsafe work practice or condition that required mitigation.
The Newmont Waihi Gold freephone is attended 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
0800 NEWMONT
(0800 639 6668)
Recently Macmahon Contractors Ltd, which mines the ore and waste in the Martha open pit, celebrated a significant achievement when they reached 1000 days LTA free.
Put in perspective, that means that the current 85 employees (including full time subcontractors) at Macmahon have turned up for work every day for almost three years without any staff member requiring time off for an injury.
At the tailings dam area staff are currently up to 2754 days without an LTA. That's 7.5 years. In a heavy construction industry that nationwide had a record of 198 ACC incident claims per 1000 staff in 2005 that is quite an achievement.
'This is a record to be particularly proud of, and is a real tribute to the staff involved', says Newmont Waihi Gold Safety Manager Andy Schmidt, 'it also shows the value of training programmes, hazard identification systems and personal safety awareness, including looking after your mates.'