Newmont's Cadia Gold Mine to spend $300,000 on monitors after dust incidents
The Cadia Mine near Orange in NSW is one of the country's largest gold projects. (Supplied: Newcrest Mining)
In short:
The owner of the Cadia Gold Mine in the NSW Central West will spend more than $300,000 on monitoring equipment for the state's dust network.
It will also pay $25,000 to the state's environment watchdog for its investigative and legal costs spent probing two dust incidents at the mine.
What's next?
The locations for the five new monitors are yet to be determined.
The owner of one of Australia's largest gold mines will spend more than $300,000 on air monitoring equipment after two dust incidents.
The NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has entered a legally binding agreement with Newmont, the operator of the Cadia Gold Mine near Orange on the NSW Central Tablelands.
The enforceable undertaking dictated that the company would spend $307,500 on five new monitoring stations for the state government's Rural Dust Monitoring Network.
The agreement was reached after the EPA launched legal action against the mine for two dust incidents in October 2022.
The agency has since dropped the proceedings after it settled the enforceable undertaking with Newmont.
The NSW EPA alleged the two dust events occurred in October 2022. (ABC Open contributor: Happy Snapper)
The company will also pay $25,000 to the EPA to cover the investigative and legal costs it spent probing the dust events from the mine's tailings dam.
The EPA's Executive Director of Operations Steve Beaman said in a statement these sorts of agreements led to effective outcomes for the community.
"Since these incidents, Cadia has acted to minimise dust events, including installing an irrigation system on their northern tailings storage facility," he said.
"[Cadia] is continuing work to manage dust emissions in the long term."
The five locations of the DustTrak monitoring stations are yet to be determined. (Supplied: Cadia Valley Operations )
In a statement, a Newmont spokesperson said the two dust lift-off events did not exceed the mine's 24-hour criteria for air quality.
"As part of Cadia's ongoing commitment to environmental stewardship it implements a comprehensive dust management program," they said.
"We provide real-time accessible data and reporting on air quality levels at four locations around our site."
The agreement comes after the mine was fined $350,000 earlier this year for several dust pollution breaches between 2021 and 2023.
Boost to dust network
Mr Beaman said the five extra stations would increase the state's number of monitors to more than 40.
The DustTrak facilities will measure indicators such as visibility, and oxides of nitrogen and ozone.
They will also detect very small particulate matter known as PM10 and PM2.5.
NSW Health described those types of dust particles — which are fewer than 10 micrometres in length — as small enough to enter the lungs and bloodstream and had the potential to cause serious health effects.
The locations of the DustTrak stations are yet to be determined.