Cyanide Code Audit
Newmont globally is a signatory to the International Cyanide Management Code. This voluntary industry code focuses on the safe management of cyanide during its production, transport, storage and use in the gold and silver recovery process.
Independent professionals, certified by the ICMI board and with extensive industry experience, conduct audits every three years. If the site complies with the code protocols the board issues a certificate of compliance. Any site that does not comply must develop and implement a corrective action plan to meet all the requirements set out in the code.
Auditors will visit the Waihi site in June and will present their draft report within three weeks. The final report is posted on the ICMI website www.cyanidecode.org.
Environmental Manager Pieter Fransen says the company welcomes these audits as a way of ensuring that the operation keeps up with international best practice. 'We have stringent controls on the use of cyanide on site and our track record is very good, but there is always room for improvement, an audit provides a valued external check on our procedures'.
HELP is on the way!
The Habitat Enhancement and Landcare Partnership was initiated in 1993 by the then Waihi Gold Mining Company in active partnership with local community groups, individuals and schools. The aim of the organisation was to promote and enhance sustainable land use practices. Most projects have been centred around riparian planting of waterways in the Waihi basin such as the Managatoetoe Stream and the Ohinemuri River, but the project now also incorporates broader activities such as biodiversity assessment.
Now, almost thirteen years after being set up, HELP has expanded. The organization is now an employer with a $130,000 a year turnover and contracts with Hauraki and Western Bay of Plenty District Councils and others as far afield as Manukau and Papakura.
In an ambitious new project HELP has embarked on the Waitete Stream restoration project with nine groups providing financial or in kind contributions Following extensive and detailed submissions the group has recently received $300,000 which will be received over three years. 'Significant funding has come from the Ministry for the Environment, Environment Waikato and Newmont, but we also rely greatly on the assistance of landowners, local schools, and organisations such as Waihi Walkways', says coordinator Andrew Jenks.
Newmont Waihi Gold general manager Glen Grindlay describes HELP's development as a model for other groups in the community. 'This is a win-win situation. Newmont Waihi Gold has always concentrated on providing a 'hand up' rather than a 'hand out' and this is an excellent example. The way in which HELP has developed is just fantastic. They have sourced external funding, provide employment, are working to enhance our environment and are all set to make a real difference.'
Project Coordinator Andrew Jenks and Year 8 students from Waihi College pause briefly during data gathering next to the Waitete Stream last week. The inkpad the group is holding is placed in a small pipe in front of a bait station. Pests track across the ink to get to the food. leaving an inky record of their visit. Regular monitoring provides an indication of habitat pest populations. The stations will be used again after an eradication programme to measure its success. Inset: Rat tracks left at a monitoring station.
Looking to the Past for a Vision of the Future
Waihi Heritage Vision is one of several groups that evolved from Waihi Community Vision and the active process of identifying and enhancing our community values. The group has been set up with the objectives of researching, recording and preserving Waihi's valuable heritage in a coordinated way. They plan to work in partnership with the community, and have identified that education, guidance, inspiration and proactive protection are needed to make significant progress in the preservation of our community's heritage. The group stresses that heritage doesn't just mean buildings, as well as built heritage they will also focus on environmental and cultural heritage features.
Waihi Heritage Vision has recently become an incorporated society. This will allow it to source funds in the same way that HELP has done so successfully.
Waihi Heritage Vision: looking forward to enhancing our past.
Doreen McLeod, Mark Samson and Guy Spurr look over layout and display proposals for the new facility.
A Moving Experience
Newmont Waihi Gold's Golden Legacy Centre situated on Moresby Avenue next to the Martha pit will soon be operating from new premises in the Tenix building opposite the Cornish Pumphouse. Work is currently underway to provide a larger display space and enhanced display features. Golden Legacy Manager Doreen McLeod says that the move is a logical one.
The Newmont Waihi Gold freephone is attended 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
0800 NEWMONT
(0800 639 6668)
'With the pumphouse being such a focal point in town, it made sense to be close by. We will still be close to the open pit and the pit rim walkway, but will be in a position to attract more visitors who are drawn to the top of the town by the relocated pumphouse. We are designing the new displays to cater for the small groups we receive many times a day, and also for the tour buses which are increasingly travelling on State Highway 2 and stopping in Waihi.'
Vision Waihi Trust and Go Waihi are expected to join Newmont on the lower floor of the new building and make use of the office space available.