Third Round Payments

The payments for the next round will cover the period between July 1 and December 31 2008. Payments will be processed during January and February 2009.






The Newmont Waihi Gold community engagement line is attended 24 hours a day, seven days a week.


0800 NEWMONT (0800 639 6668)

The Amenity Effect Programme

The Favona and Martha mines operate close to a number of residential properties in the Waihi community. The mining licence and resource consents place very stringent limits on noise, vibration, dust and other effects.

Consent limits are designed to protect amenity (quality of life) for most of the community for most of the time. However, Newmont Waihi Gold (NWG) recognises that people living in some areas may, from time to time, experience reduced amenity due to levels of noise, vibration and possibly dust generated by mining activities.

Although the company has no legal obligation to do so, it introduced the Amenity Effect Programme (AEP) to compensate residents for loss of amenity due to effects from mining operations, despite the mining operations being conducted within consent compliance limits. It is an informal arrangement between Newmont Waihi Gold and the eligible households, offered as a goodwill gesture. NZ Green Party MP Jeannette Fitzsimons and Waihi advocacy group DRAT assisted NWG to design the programme.

First and Second Round AEP Payments

Occupants in just over 130 properties were eligible for the AEP in the first round.

Payments covered the twelve months from January to December 2007. Each property joining the programme received a one-off enrolment payment of $500.00 and an additional payment based on measured effects monitored and recorded by the company up to and during that twelve month period.

The second round of payments is now complete. This round covers the period January 1 to June 30 2008. Residents already participating in the programme only receive the effects-based payment for the six month period - not the one-off enrolment payment.

During this six month period activities within the Favona underground mine have extended to a different area, thus altering the zone of eligible properties. A further twenty residences have qualified to join the programme. All new participants will receive both the one-off enrolment payment and the appropriate effects-based payment.

Activities in the Martha open pit have progressed deeper within the mine site over the last six months. As a result of this, measured effects on 25 properties have decreased below the trigger limit. These properties remain on the programme but receive no effects-based payments for this period.

Waihi Aerial View

Above:   Waihi Aerial View.

Eligibility

NWG has received numerous requests from residents about eligibility to join the AEP. Approximately a third of applicants have qualified to join the programme using the current qualifying criteria.

Zones have been defined so that a consistent formula can be applied. This helps to avoid misinterpretation relating to properties on the periphery of the zones. However, the AEP is still in its infancy and anomalies may appear from time to time. Every effort is made to address these as they arise.

Best practice recommends assessment of the programme is based on a full year's data. Early next year the parameters and criteria will be reassessed. At this stage of the programme there have been no changes in operations that call for a significant change of boundaries and monitoring trends for noise and vibration are consistent with expectations.

To assess eligibility at a property NWG will undertake monitoring and will extend the programme to properties that meet the qualifying criteria.

How are the areas defined?

NWG analysed all noise and vibration monitoring during 2007 and community feedback over a longer period. The analyses identified zones where households are most likely to experience more than infrequent effects of noise and vibration from the current operations.

What criteria are used?

With monitoring equipment used according to consent conditions -

For noise: Properties downwind in predominant wind directions (south-west and north-east) with wind speed of between 2.5 and 5 metres per second that results in mine-derived noise levels exceeding 50dBA.

For blast vibration: Average of two or more blasts per month with ground vibration equal or greater than 1.5 millimetres per second in magnitude (peak particle velocity).

For dust: No specific provision is made for dust effects as the daily quantities generated are too small to measure and there is no usable method of measuring mine-derived dust in isolation of dust from other sources. As dust and noise effects are both exacerbated by wind, it is assumed that a dust effect could occur wherever there is a noise effect. The noise payments therefore include dust effects.