Simtars Environment Team helps a mining company

Navigating the complexity of an environmental authority (EA) and meeting compliance requirements place ever increasing pressure on mines to comply with more stringent environmental regulations. Recently a mine relied on Simtars’ expertise in a range of technical disciplines to undertake a multi-faceted assessment to determine potential environmental and community impacts around their long-standing resource operation in South-East Queensland. The primary concerns arose from potential discharge of sediments into local waterways, potential discharge of respirable silica dust to air, and environmental noise.

Simtars approach included:

• characterisation of the existing receiving environment (using both impact and reference sites), including:
  • assessment of the likelihood of the presence of any flora or fauna species of conservation significance
  • characterisation of the water quality within the local area
  • characterisation of the aquatic benthic substrates within the local area (stream sediments)
  • description of the habitat values of the area’s waterways
• measurement of ambient conditions within the residential zone of the nearby township for respirable dust (dust particles with a diameter of 2.5 microns or less, known as the PM2.5 fraction) and respirable silica
• measurement and evaluation of operational noise levels at sensitive receptors surrounding the site
• recommendations regarding the avoidance and mitigation measures required to manage any identified impacts.

Following the environmental impact assessment, Simtars recommended and implemented a number of compliance solutions for the mine using innovative approaches to ensure EA conditions are met now and in the future.