When we carry out wormseeding, sods of earth from fertile paddocks are placed on measured spots on newly rehabilitated pasture along with a dash of lime. Before long the worms start doing what worms do and the quality of the new pasture improves.

At Baxters Road, on the waste rock embankments, completed construction areas are covered in top soil and subsoil and then grassed, fertilised and grazed - but the new pasture doesn't contain many worms. In other areas around the site, more established paddocks have numerous worm populations.

The worms have benefited this pasture by aerating the soil, distributing nutrients throughout it and mixing up the soil layers. At the mine the first worm seeding exercise was in 1992. Over the years, as rehabilitated pasture is ready, sections are seeded with worms. The local primary schools have been involved from the start, recognising this is a worthwhile science-in-action learning experience for the students. They carry out classroom activities before and after their visit to the mine site and build their own worm farms at school. This year 193 students from five schools took part.

The children found out that a sod of earth contains, on average, ten worms. That converts to 160 worms per square metre and 1.6 million worms per hectare. They also discovered that there are 173 native worm species in NZ, the longest species can grow up to 1.3 metres long, an earthworm has five hearts and they can live for up to eight years.

Stocking Up On Ore

Newmont Waihi Gold has had an application approved to slightly increase the capacity of the polishing pond ore stockpile. This was originally consented in April 2004 and has been used since October 2006.

The polishing pond stockpile is adjacent to the water treatment plant and mill at the Baxter Road site. It stores ore from the Martha Mine open pit. Under routine operating conditions the ore is fed from the stockpile into the mill for a few days while the mill is processing rock from Martha. Then the stockpile is replenished with ore from the open pit while the mill is on a Favona campaign.

The fire at the mill motor control centre on 5 May this year shut down ore processing until the end of July. Newmont chose to continue mining, even though at a reduced rate at the Martha Mine, to avoid having to lay off Macmahon staff for the duration of the shut down.

Now that processing of ore has restarted priority is being given to the higher-grade Favona ore that has accumulated during the shut down. In the meantime, the quantity of Martha ore will continue to grow, requiring an extension to the polishing pond stockpile.

The consented design currently in use has a footprint of 5.1 hectares, a height of 30 metres and a maximum capacity of 1.4 million tonnes. The approved extension has a smaller footprint of 4.6 hectares and a height of 35 metres, which increases capacity to 1.5 million tonnes.

The aerial photograph shows the location of the polishing pond stockpile.

The revised design can be built in accordance with and operated within the scope of the existing consents where they relate to matters such as hours of work and operating noise limits. However, some minor variations have been approved relating to the stockpile liner and collection pond liner. It is expected to take three months to complete the construction work.

It is unlikely that residential properties will experience any increase in noise effects as all construction and operating activities will occur below the level of the Moore Street noise bund.

The visual effect of the extra five metres of stockpile height will also be minimal because native vegetation planted by Newmont along Golden Valley Road provides effective screening.

For further information please contact Kevin Storer on 07 863 8192