Community Meetings

Throughout April and early May our External Affairs team held a series of meetings with a range of community groups and sectors of the community. The aim of the meetings was to share information between the company and each sector about current and future activities. This helps to facilitate short and long term planning and identifies factors that may affect personnel, strategy and policies.

Some interesting issues were raised at these meetings. The most talked-about topics were property markets, employment, Waihi's changing demographics, the proposed eastern layback in the open pit and impacts of mine closure on the town's economy and the mine's community investment.

NWG External Affairs Manager Kelvyn Eglinton is keen to hold information sharing sessions with other community groups as well as following up regularly with the sectors who attended the recent series of meetings.

We'd like to come to your place.

If your organisation would like to hear from us or if you would like to let us know what your group is planning, we can arrange to come to one of your meetings.



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


0800 NEWMONT (0800 639 6668)

Fire at Waihi Gold's Mill

It's back to business as usual for most areas at the mine site but at Waihi Gold's mill things will take some time to get back to normal.

Fire Trucks

Emergency services worked with the Mine Rescue team to control the fire at Waihi Gold's mill. The scene was attended by local fire, ambulance and police personnel.

The fire at Newmont Waihi Gold's processing plant on May 5 has destroyed the motor control centre (MCC 03). This area contains the circuitry and switchboards that power the machinery vital to precious metals production. As a result of the fire the mill is out of action for at least three months while the components that drive it are replaced or refurbished.

Official assessors have left site and released the scene of the fire back to NWG. A comprehensive mill recovery plan is in place and a schedule of tasks for opportunity maintenance and other non-production activities is being formulated.

The fire initially cut power to the Favona underground mine and the crusher at the Martha open pit for a couple of hours but these areas were back up and running the same afternoon. Parts of the mill resorted to generator power for a few days and the company's main computer server was affected, disabling computer drives and electronic communications for more than 24 hours. Power has now been restored to the mill control room and gold room and gold was poured twice last week, using ore that was in the circuit before the fire started.

When the mill does start back up again there will be a lot of stockpiled material to work through. The higher grade Favona ore will be processed as a priority over Martha ore to raise the ore grades and produce a higher number of gold ounces for the rest of the year. There will be a strong focus on minimising the financial impact the fire has caused.

The fire has also had an impact on staff. From May 25 Macmahon manpower will be reducing from twelve hours a day to nine hours a day, Monday to Friday. Because the mill is unable to process ore and space for stockpiles at the mill site is limited, there is a reduction in the amount of ore to be transported from the open pit. There will also be a reduction in contractor requirements and use, affecting sub-contractor positions. Minor changes to the mill rosters for Newmont Waihi Gold staff will see a number of night shift staff redeployed to day shift to assist with recovery and getting the mill operational again.

The financial impact of loss of production at the mill is around $4M a week in lost revenue. As well, there is a downstream effect on suppliers and sub-contractors because deliveries of materials to the mill are fewer and activities at the processing plant have changed. The companies affected have been notified of this position. It is not known at this stage what financial impact this will have further down the line.

Fire Damage

Rapid Response

When the fire broke out at Waihi Gold's mill the company's emergency management system swung into action.

Newmont's Rapid Response is used when an incident or issue has the potential to threaten the safety and well being of its employees. There is a team of people who are assigned roles and responsibilities, are trained in the system and can respond appropriately to an incident of this nature.

Using the Rapid Response system ensures that the incident is managed effectively with minimum impacts on people, the environment and the community. It also considers strategic, legal and financial aspects of the incident and ensures communications are carried out in accordance with legal and ethical requirements.

A vital tool used in Rapid Response is LUIS (Live Update Information System). LUIS is the real-time web-based issues and events monitoring, communication and recording application that is used as soon as a Rapid Response event is initiated. It can be accessed by site, regional or corporate rapid response team members as required. LUIS users input information into the system so that all team members can see the whole big picture. When all other electronic communications systems were unavailable last Tuesday and Wednesday, LUIS was still alive and well and able to facilitate vital communications. LUIS also provides checklists to ensure management of the crisis stays on track.

While the heat has now abated from the emergency situation the Rapid Response system is still open and will continue to run until the team is satisfied that all recovery actions are complete.