Community Consultative Committee – 17 August 2015 1

MINUTES Cadia Valley Operations Community Consultative Committee

Title: Community Consultative Committee

Meeting Date:

Time:

17 August 2015

6:15pm

Chairperson Bruce Buchanan CEO, Business Enterprise Centre

Meeting Attendees: Chris Baker Blayney Shire Landowner

Colin Jones Cabonne Shire Landowner

Geoff Knox Errowanbang Landowner

Kim Masters Forest Reefs/Flyers Creek Landowner

Mark Dicker Blayney Shire Council

Mark Hodges Orange City Council

Heather Nicholls Cabonne Shire Council

Nedra Burns Acting CVO General Manager

Jeff Burton CVO Environment Superintendent

Alison Farrar CVO Senior Community Relations Specialist

Apologies: Graham Brown Orange City Council Landowner

David Waddell Orange City Council

Tony McPaul CVO General Manager

Venue: Newcrest Integrated Operations Centre, 9 Leewood Drive, Orange

Next Meeting: 9 November 2015

Ref # Action Items Who Due By

1 Provide Geoff Knox with a copy of CVO’s Independent Compliance Audit Report.

Jeff Burton 17 September 2015

2 Update future CCC meetings to the second Monday of the month for each quarter.

Alison Farrar & Melissa O’Brien

Ongoing

MEETING WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS

Bruce Buchanan, chairperson, opened the meeting. Apologies were tendered for Tony McPaul, David Waddell and Graham Brown.

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING

Actions Arising:

1. Review the CCC Charter and Constitution every five years. The next review date will be in August 2015. Action completed during meeting.

2. Provide the drilling depths of the additional groundwater monitoring bores (near the Southern Tailings Storage Facility). Action completed during meeting (see Appendix 1).

Community Consultative Committee – 17 August 2015 2

3. Present water quality, depth of bores and current water depth of monitoring bores to the south-west of the mine at next meeting. Action completed during meeting (See Appendix 1).

4. Provide update on Cabonne Council road works at next meeting. Action completed. Heather Nicholls said that wet weather had caused delay on the Cadia/Four Mile Creek Road intersection work but by week end, assuming no further wet weather, Council will have completed two thirds of the earthworks, removed the rest of the existing pavement and diverted Cadia bound traffic.

Minutes from the previous meeting were accepted without amendment.

REVIEW CONSTITUTION AND CHARTER – Chairperson

The CCC Committee reviewed the Constitution and Charter and made the following amendments, subject to approval from the Department of Planning:

Section 2 – Alternates. Add in that alternates represent the community for the duration of the meeting and must be approved by the Chairperson 24 hours prior to the meeting.

Section 5 – Minutes. Change ‘draft’ to ‘final’ minutes will be made available for public inspection on the company’s website and at the Councils within 28 days of each meeting.

Section 13 – Quorum. Each local Government area must be represented for the quorum. Add in that this includes either a local government representative or landowner.

Section 14 – Attendance. Replace “monthly” with “quarterly” for frequency of the meetings.

Changes to the Constitution and Charter were accepted by the Committee.

Chris Baker raised discussion around Section 9 - Pecuniary and Other Interests. While no changes were made to the Constitution, the Committee agreed that if any Members have a personal, rather than a general interest in a particular topic, this should be declared in the minutes.

CADIA VALLEY OPERATIONAL UPDATE – Nedra Burns

Site Safety

Since the last meeting, a fatality has occurred at Newcrest’s Hidden Valley operation in Papua New

Guinea

This is the third Newcrest fatality in the last seven months and the fourth in the last 18 months. While

no fatalities have occurred recently at CVO, last financial year nine Serious Potential Incidents

occurred at CVO. The definition of a Serious Potential Incident is that there were no controls left in

place and it was just luck that saved someone from being killed. Newcrest has just introduced a new

safety cultural program at CVO to address safety issues.

Community Consultative Committee – 17 August 2015 3

FY15 Safety Performance Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate (injuries per million man hours): 8.13 (target 6)

July 2015 Safety Performance Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate (injuries per million man hours): 6.82 (target 6)

Newcrest FY15 production results

Highlights Newcrest Cadia Valley Operations

Gold production (oz) 2,422,568 667,418 Ridgeway = 223,381 Cadia East = 444,038

Copper production (t) 96,816 73,697 Ridgeway = 35,803 Cadia East = 37,894

All In Sustaining Cost $941 AUD/oz $245 AUD/oz

Community Consultative Committee – 17 August 2015 4

Question

Q. Do the production results show that the Newcrest All In Sustaining Cost was $941 per ounce, but CVO was only $245 per ounce? (Mark Hodges)

A. Yes, some of CVO’s costs are offset by copper production but CVO is a very low cost gold producer. (Nedra Burns)

Operations update

Following the Cadia East PC2 seismic event, development was suspended until it was safe to return to the area. As a result, the life of Ridgeway has been extended to mitigate the loss of production from PC2.

Firings recommenced at PC2 in early August with a 48 hour standoff period to monitor seismic activity. Additional ground support and resin injection (which sets like concrete) into damaged pillars took place to ensure development could safely resume in the area. CVO has also changed its mining method in PC2 to an advanced undercut to ensure people working underground are working under the rock that has already broken (or de-stressed), significantly reducing their exposure to potential rock burst events.

Earthworks and construction for the new CVO Dewatering Plant at Blayney are underway.

The two Cadia East approval modifications, 32Mtpa and Biodiversity Offset, are still pending determination by the Department of Planning and Environment.

An update was provided on the status of legal proceedings between Newcrest Mining and Gold and Copper Resources.

ENVIRONMENT – Jeff Burton

Environmental Monitoring

Reportable Incidents

3 June, 2 July, 27 July and 1 August 2015 – CVO has experienced a number of minor leaks from breather valves on the Blayney Return Water Line (Browns Creek Road, Matthews Rd and Wattersons Lane). The largest volume leak occurred on 1 August near the intersection of Wattersons Lane and Tallwood Road, the volume was estimated at 5,000L. Work is underway into the root cause of the leaks. Contributing factors that have been identified are the solids in the water from the Blayney Plant, the suitability of the valves for dealing with a small amount of solids in the water and the maintenance of the valves.

8 July 2015 - leak from Cadia Hill Pit dewatering line.

Question

Q. Do you have to manually release the air in the air release valves or are they automatic? (Chris Baker)

A. They automatically release when the pumps are turned off or on, either letting air into the pipe or releasing it. If pumping was continuous it is less likely that leaks would be occurring. (Jeff Burton)

Blasting

Results for May and June 2015 within compliance limits.

Community Consultative Committee – 17 August 2015 5

Air Quality Results

Below are the results for May, June and July 2015, which were all within compliance limits. The four lines on each graph represent the four air quality monitors versus the compliance limit.

The spike in early May 2015 was identified as a regional dust event and was picked up by all four of CVO’s monitors. It was also picked up by the Bathurst Environmental Protection Authority monitor as a regional dust event.

Community Consultative Committee – 17 August 2015 6

Results were well below the criteria in June 2015.

The gap in the July 2015 data was from a site-wide power outage that occurred on the day it snowed.

Community Consultative Committee – 17 August 2015 7

Operational Noise

Quattrosound monitoring undertaken during May and June 2015:

‘Northwest’ – compliant

‘South Log’ – compliant

‘Bonnie Glen’ – compliant

247 Newbridge Rd - compliant

Attended Noise Monitoring

Compliant at all locations.

Traffic Noise Mitigation

‘Anynco’ – complete.

Environmental Management

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Audit – December 2014 (report pending).

Currently compiling data for Annual Environmental Management Report. A copy will be sent

to each Committee Member, each of the local councils and regulators in October.

Habitat relocation to South Waste Rock Dump rehabilitation area was completed in June.

Additional groundwater monitoring bores were installed in late June.

Aquatic ecology monitoring was completed and included two additional sites – Diggers Creek

to the west of Tunbridge Wells and Rodds Creek, south of the Southern Tailings Storage

Facility.

Permanent basalt groundwater licence purchase was completed in June.

Kangaroo program – The 200 shoot and let lie tags have been received from National Parks

and Wildlife Service and CVO will commence the program in late August, pending ground

conditions.

Earlier in the year the Cadia District Enhancement Project Governing Committee considered

a coordinated kangaroo management program across the district. The Committee decided

that due to the legal nature and hurdles involved in managing tags and shooters that it was up

to the individual landholder to manage their programs.

Two additional environmental positions have been advertised. One of the positions will take

over the work that a Local Land Service consultant has currently been undertaking, working

with CVO’s agistees as well as undertaking site rehabilitation and work on conservation offset

areas.

Replacement of the tarpaulin on the Cornish Engine House will occur over the next few

months.

Independent Compliance Audit findings

In late 2014 CVO commissioned an Independent Compliance Audit, which is a requirement of

the Cadia East Project Approval.

Community Consultative Committee – 17 August 2015 8

The audit was conducted by Graham A Brown & Associates.

CVO was audited against:

• Cadia East Project Approval

• Environment Protection Licence

• Mining Lease Conditions

• Management Plans

• Any regulatory actions or directions

Out of 316 requirements, the auditors found CVO to be 93.4% compliant, a good result

considering the complexity of the compliance requirements.

16 areas were identified for improvement, which included:

• Minor hydrocarbon storages

• Review and update of management plans and Environment Strategy

• Riparian release and achieving medium flow events

• Records management procedure

• Alignment of some conditions to reflect practical aspects of

monitoring/reporting.

The compliance report has been placed on the Cadia Valley website.

ACTION – CVO to provide Geoff Knox with a copy of the Independent Compliance Audit

Report.

Water Storage & Extraction

Storage (1 August 2015) Storage (ML) Percentage

Cadiangullong Dam 4,056 96%

Rodds Creek Dam 9,211 64%

Total 13,267 71%

YTD Extraction (ML) Account balance at 1 August 2015 (ML)

Cadiangullong Dam 5

4,153

Flyers Creek 0

Runoff (Copper Gully Creek & Rodds Creek) 42

Cadiangullong Total 47

YTD Extraction (ML) Account balance at 1 August 2015 (ML)

Belubula general security 7 2,745

Belubula supplementary 291 2,834

Lachlan Fold Belt Groundwater (bores) 2 369

Lachlan Fold Belt Groundwater (mine dewatering) 49 882

Orange Basalt Groundwater (mine dewatering) 18 178

Community Consultative Committee – 17 August 2015 9

Groundwater

The graph on the right shows cumulative rainfall departure.

The map below provides a summary of groundwater level trends in the area.

All of the bores marked red are showing a decline in the last month and the green ones are showing an increase in groundwater levels.

Community Consultative Committee – 17 August 2015 10

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858

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Dec-11 Apr-12 Jul-12 Oct-12 Jan-13 May-13 Aug-13 Nov-13 Mar-14 Jun-14 Sep-14 Dec-14 Apr-15 Jul-15

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MB60 Water level (masl) CE Cave Breakthrough CRD

Groundwater monitoring bore graphs

Below is a series of groundwater charts from various bores across the CVO monitoring network. The green line is the cumulative rainfall departure and the blue line is the groundwater level. The red line indicates the cave break through at Cadia East.

MB45 was flagged at the last meeting as one that CVO is continuing to watch closely as it is dropping at a faster rate than other bores in the area. MB45 is located in the pine plantation across the road from the top of the CVO Access Road. CVO is working out if this is a function of the pine plantation or if there are other issues contributing to the decrease.

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884.5

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Jan-95 Sep-97 Jun-00 Mar-03 Dec-05 Sep-08 Jun-11 Mar-14 Nov-16

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RB1 Water level (masl) CE Cave Breakthrough CRD

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897

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MB45 Water level (masl) CE Cave Breakthrough CRD

Community Consultative Committee – 17 August 2015 11

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959

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Apr-12 Jul-12 Oct-12 Jan-13 May-13 Aug-13 Nov-13 Mar-14 Jun-14 Sep-14 Dec-14 Apr-15 Jul-15

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MB74 (Tertiary Basalt) Water level (masl) CRD

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736.5

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MB68 Water level (masl) CRD

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744.5

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Apr-12 Oct-12 May-13 Nov-13 Jun-14 Dec-14 Jul-15

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MB70 Water level (masl) CRD

Community Consultative Committee – 17 August 2015 12

Below is a map indicating the locations of the monitoring bores.

Community Consultative Committee – 17 August 2015 13

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RO7 Water level (masl) RW Breakthrough Trigger CRD

Below are the groundwater results for bores located to the west, south and south east of the mine, as requested by the committee for regular inclusion. The red line (where present) indicates the cave break through at Ridgeway.

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RB4 Water level (masl) CRD

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MB29A Water level (masl) CRD

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726.5

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731

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MB21 Water level (masl) CRD

Community Consultative Committee – 17 August 2015 14

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MB25 Water level (masl) CRD

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MB8A Water level (masl) CRD

Community Consultative Committee – 17 August 2015 15

Below is a map indicating the locations of the groundwater bores.

Questions

Q. Where is MB25 located? (Geoff Knox)

A. On the western side of the Southern Tailings Dam. (Jeff Burton)

Q. Would the water level be increasing because it’s being influenced by the tailings? (Geoff Knox)

Community Consultative Committee – 17 August 2015 16

A. Not necessarily. The groundwater quality is not showing a definite influence from the tailings dams. When you have massive structures such as tailings dams or waste rock dumps, you can get a localised increase in levels. (Jeff Burton)

COMMUNITY RELATIONS – Alison Farrar

Cadia District Enhancement Project Update

CDEP meeting held in June.

Next meeting will be held Thursday, 3 September 2015.

CVO Loyalty Program

FY16 Cadia District Grants Program Round 1 applications open on 1 October and close 31 October.

July 2015 – Cadia District First Aid Course. 13 participants.

Renewable Energy

Investigating guest speaker to talk about current research, suppliers and types of solar systems available.

Coordinated Weed and Pest Program

June 2015 – Distribution of baits for fox baiting program. Covered an area of more than 18,000 ha.

June 2015 – Agronomy workshop on managing broadleaf weeds. 8 participants.

Coming up… August 2015 – Farm Mapping QGIS workshop.

Questions

Q. What was the percentage of fresh baits to manufactured baits for the fox baiting program? (Chris Baker)

A. Most people preferred the fresh baits. The ranger recommends the fresh baits up front followed by manufactured baits as a follow up program. Some landholders prefer the manufactured baits because they are easier to handle and store. (Jeff Burton)

Q. How effective was this year’s fox baiting program? (Kim Masters)

A. From all reports it was a success with a good uptake of baits. (Jeff Burton)

Gems of the Valley

Stories currently being typed and collated by working group.

Met with printer in July.

Community Consultative Committee – 17 August 2015 17

Telecommunications

Adopted as a project and subcommittee formed.

Commissioned a Cadia District telecommunications survey to develop data for lobbying key politicians.

Community Relations Activities

• June – Cadia District Resident’s Meeting

• The Cadia Valley heritage website was launched in June.

• A truck driver pit stop was set up at the Cadia Top Security Hut, to provide toilet and kitchen facilities for CVO truck drivers to encourage them to park on CVO land and not public roads.

• Presented 11 EnviroSmart grants to local schools in June.

• Another clean up of Cadia Road and the roads to Millthorpe was organised in early August.

• 8 mine tours since January with 174 visitors.

• The next CVO Open Day has been scheduled for Sunday 1 May 2015.

Community Concerns

May

Dangerous driver – Cadia Road. Vehicle failed to give way at intersection. The driver of the vehicle was identified. The driver believed the incident was a judgement error and was out of character for him. CVO counselled the driver in accordance with CVO’s Work Journey Driver Behaviour Policy.

June

Exploration – Burnt Yards. Landowner reported Newcrest exploration materials had been left on property, prior to their ownership of the land. CVO removed the material from the property.

July

No community concerns.

Community Partnership Program

Major donations during May, June and July

$33,000 – Mission Australia Aged Care Facility for the homeless in Orange

$20,000 – Uralba Retirement Village at Carcoar

$10,000 – Orange City Council’s Merge Holiday Activity Program for disadvantaged youth

$3,500 – Orange Business Chamber

$2,500 – James Sheahan Catholic High School

$2,465 - $4$ donation made to Ronald McDonald House Orange

$2,000 – Orange Legacy

Total during May, June & July = $75,565.20

Total donations for FY15 = $408,850.30

Community Consultative Committee – 17 August 2015 18

The following types of organisations received funding during FY15.

GENERAL BUSINESS

Flyers Creek Windfarm

Q. Did CVO have to negotiate with the windfarm proponents, since the power is supposed to go through CVO’s line? (Chris Baker)

A. We’ve had conversations with the windfarm and we did put in a submission highlighting our concerns, mainly around stability of power to the site and cumulative noise impacts. If we lose power supply at CVO, the repercussions are detrimental as the whole operation would shut down. We also have a consent condition that requires us to take into account cumulative noise from other industries in the area. (Nedra Burns)

Q. So you have to take into account the windfarm for cumulative impacts? I thought there was something about the windfarm being concerned about this? (Chris Baker)

A. The windfarm proponent had to reach agreement with CVO regarding the tap into the line by a certain date. I think a modification was approved that extended this deadline for a period of time and may close in September. (Jeff Burton)

Q. I was concerned because of the availability of power but you don’t have to rely on the power from the windfarm to guarantee your power? (Chris Baker)

A. No, CVO doesn’t have to rely on the power from the windfarm. (Nedra Burns).

The Committee discussed how the windfarm will tap into the existing powerline.

Kim Masters declared an interest in the Flyers Creek Windfarm as he owns land that is scheduled to house some of the wind turbines.

$2,500

$72,500 $60,500

$83,600

$141,160

$7,500 $9,000

$0

$20,000

$40,000

$60,000

$80,000

$100,000

$120,000

$140,000

$160,000

Community Consultative Committee – 17 August 2015 19

CVO powerline from Orange

Q. Is there any update on the powerline from Orange? (Colin Jones)

A. No, it’s still in suspension and doesn’t look like it will be revived any time soon. The offer to negotiate option agreements with CVO has now closed. There are still some negotiations in place but CVO won’t be entering into any new negotiations. (Nedra Burns)

Future meeting dates

Mark Dicker advised that Blayney Shire Council has recently changed its meetings to the third Monday of the month. To avoid clashing with the CCC meeting, the Committee agreed to change the date of future CCC meetings to the second Monday of the month in November, February, May and August. ACTION – CVO to update CCC meetings to the second Monday of the month for each quarter.

Next meeting: Monday, 9 November 2015

Community Consultative Committee – 17 August 2015 20

APPENDIX 1: GROUNDWATER MONITORING BORES – Jeff Burton

Additional bores in monitoring network

CVO drilled eight new groundwater monitoring bores in June 2015.

5 new bores (near Southern Tailings Storage Facility)

Redrilled 3 failed bores

The drill depth and standing water level for each bore is shown in the table below.

Bore Status Drill depth (Metres)

Standing water level (below case level)

5C Replace 5a 56 5.01

77A New 13 7.31

77B New 29 10.34

78 New 14 6.540

79 New 40 Dry

80 New 64 36.008

81 Replace RB6 19 6.743

82 Replace RB7 104 61.790

Community Consultative Committee – 17 August 2015 21

Regional Bores – Groundwater levels

RB3, RB4 and RB5 are located to the west of CVO’s Tailings Storage Facilities. The graphs below show the water depth and cumulative rainfall departure. The water depth for each bore is tracking in line with the cumulative rainfall departure curve.

The screening level on RB3 is between 5 and 22 metres. The standing water level is 5.7 metres.

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RB3 CRD

Community Consultative Committee – 17 August 2015 22

RB4 has screening down to 60 metres. The standing water level is 27.5 metres.

RB5 has screening between 6 and 21 metres. The standing water level is 0.8 metres.

Northern Tailings Storage Facility Bores – Western Section

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RB4 CRD

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RB5 CRD

Community Consultative Committee – 17 August 2015 23

Zinc concentrations in MB18 decreased in the last two sampling runs, after a reported increase in the 2013/14 AEMR.

Zinc & manganese in MB23 have returned to within the historical range after increases were observed in June 2014 and reported in the 2013/14 AEMR.

Western Bores – Water Quality pH

The graph below shows the pH levels for MB18, MB23, MB24 and MB19A. It is worth noting that the pH for each bore varies, depending on the geology of where it is drilled and the pH varies over time. For reference, the Tailings Dam decant water is typically at a pH of approximately 7.5 to 8.

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MB18 (Silurian Sediments) MB24 (Ordovician Volcanics)

MB23 (Ordovician Volcanics) MB19A (Ordovician Volcanics)

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MB18 (Silurian Sediments) MB24 (Ordovician Volcanics)

MB23 (Ordovician Volcanics) MB19A (Ordovician Volcanics)

Community Consultative Committee – 17 August 2015 24

GHD Report- STSF Seepage Investigation data review completed in Feb 2015

Investigation concluded: • Deeper groundwater bores (MB26B, MB29B) did not exhibit any similarity to tailings dam

water in 2014. • Shallow bore (MB27) did show evidence of some influence from the Southern Tailings

Storage Facility. The increasing EC, sodium and sulfate concentrations at MB27 suggest that the influence of tailings dam water may not be stabilising.

• MB27 also appears to be influenced by the Southern Tailings Storage Facility and deep groundwater.

Graph showing the EC levels for MB25, MB27, MB26B and MB29B.

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2000

2500

Jun-01 Jun-02 Jun-03 Jun-04 Jun-05 Jun-06 Jun-07 Jun-08 Jun-09 Jun-10 Jun-11 Jun-12 Jun-13 Jun-14 Jul-15

EC (

uS/

cm)

MB25 (Ordovician Volcanics) MB26B (Ordovician Volcanics)

MB27 (Ordovician Volcanics) MB29B (Ordovician Volcanics)

Community Consultative Committee – 17 August 2015 25

Southern Bores – Water Quality pH

The pH for MB25, MB27, MB26B and MB29B all show that the pH varies but is following a similar band.