a gold mine The most precious rehab resource, topsoil, on the move anglesea environment report APRIL 2006 Inside the ‘Best Practice’ Environment Report: Air Emissions Water Monitoring 2006 Mine Rehabilitation Animals of the Anglesea Heath: Striated Thornbill Updates on Rainfall, Town Water Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Environmental improvement - progress towards 2006 targets Plus we talk to an employee about their contribution to improving the environment ANGLESEA ENVIRONMENT REPORT APRIL 2006 air Air Monitoring Stack Monitors Average Maximum Opacity g/m3 10-minute average 0.057 0.329 Stack SO2 kg/min 1-hour average Licence limit 111.34kg/min 71.41 91.22 Ambient Monitors SO2 1 hour ppb Average Maximum Community Centre 3 42 Primary School 2 202 Mt Ingoldsby <1 56 Scout Camp 10 176 Camp Wilkin <1 86 Camp Road 6 185 Ambient Monitors SO2 Maximum 1 hour averages (ppb) Date 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Community Centre 2 2 5 2 3 3 2 2 2 42 1 2 - - Primary School 0 0 21 7 Mt Ingoldsby 1 0 9 56 1 Scout Camp 4 3 Camp Wilkin 0 Camp Road 2 EPA Intervention Level 210 Alcoa Local Standard 170 63 0 - - - 2 7 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 6 76 103202 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 2 1 1 0 5 5 1 2 1 1 2 5 3 11 2 1 27 8 121 6 117 19 6 6 8 23 22 1 0 0 0 0 8 28 0 0 2 0 1 0 3 1 0 3 6 49 151176 6 4 4 6 146 81 97 70 5 11 9 0 7 2 0 1 0 0 0 27 6 0 3 86 13 0 3 2 2 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 0 2 30 3 6 6 2 2 2 6 185 2 32 32 4 6 79 71 147 4 5 5 3 4 5 7 10 9 3 2 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 ANGLESEA ENVIRONMENT REPORT APRIL 2006 water Water Storage Barwon Region water storage levels continue to decrease, with the Geelong system at 27.1% capcity. Water Discharge ML April Total Ashponds (SP1) 148.2 563.1 Mine (SP4) 0 0.8 Water Monitoring SP1 SP4 SP3 10/04/2006 Ashpond Mine Final EPA limit Lab Result EPA limit Lab Result EPA limit Lab Result pH 4-10 7.6 3-9 - 5-9 7.4 Susp. Solids 100 3 100 - 30 3 Colour 50 8 50 - 50 14 Aluminium 10 0.3 10 - 5.5 0.1 Iron 10 0.5 0 - 4.0 < 0.1 Zinc 0.4 < 0.1 2.0 - 0.3 < 0.1 WATER WATER USAGE PER MONTH (ML) Date JAN FEB MAR APR Town Water 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.5 4.5 Bore Water 279 243 285 237 1044 Mine Water 81 82 81 92 336 MAY JUNE JULY AUG SEPT OCT NOV DEC TOTAL 3 0 0 .0 3000 2 5 0 .0 2500 2 0 0 .0 2000 1 5 0 .0 1500 1 0 0 .0 1000 5 0 .0 0 .0 500 0 ANGLESEA ENVIRONMENT REPORT APRIL 2006 mine rehabilitation Mine rehabilitation for 2006 was completed this month. With the strip area cleared and the rehabilitation site prepared in March, two scrapers were brought on site for the movement of the subsoil + topsoil. The scrapers arrived a week late, then required tyre replacements and a week of mechanical maintance to meet items of safety from the Alcoa Mine Hire Equipment Inspection form plus the age and mechanics of these machines also meant they required a high level of maintenance during their stay. It would now be a race against time to finish the rehabilitation before the autumn break. Eventually they were on the road moving the subsoil from the 2005 strip area to the rehab area where it was spread at approximately 100 mm to replicate the natural depth of the soil profile. A new technique was then trialled with the topsoil. The area we rehabilitated this year was almost 7 hectares, however the area we cleared was less then 3.5 hectares. Therefore, for the topsoil to go the distance, it was picked up at 100mm but applied over double the area, resulting in a topsoil layer half the original depth. It is anticipated that this will not affect species return, in fact it may even demonstrate a benefit. Previous research has shown that species diversity is optimum if the topsoil is respread at 50mm. With the soil in place, an orbital muck spreader was given the task of applying the mulch over the rehab area. The rehabilitation was then ripped on contour by Kelvin Jeffs and Joe Bromley between intermittent showers of rain. Look at those ominous clouds!! The final step was the hand broadcasting of seed for six species. This is a new initiative to promote six of our key species that are not appearing in the rehabilitation with other techniques. In addition to the mine crew personnel named in the March + April Environment Reports, both crews are to be thanked for their contribution either to the rehabilitation process or for ensuring that production continued with competing demands. ANIMALS OF THE ANGLESEA HEATH STRIATED THORNBILL (Acanthiza lineata) Size: Appearance: 9-10cm greenish upperparts; an orange-brown cap, streaked distinctively with white; off-white to cream underparts; heavily streaked on chin, throat and breast male + female are similar; young birds are only slightly different to adults, with less streaking on the underside Distribution: south eastern mainland Australia from southern Queensland to eastern South Australia Habitat: open forests + woodlands dominated by eucalypts Food: mainly insects, will sometimes eat seed, nectar or fruit Living with us: adversely affected by logging + eucalypt dieback STRIATED THORNBILL ANGLESEA ENVIRONMENT REPORT APRIL 2006 LAND RAINFALL (mm) Month JAN FEB MAR APR 2006 Rainfall 46.2 19.6 7.3 37.1 110.2 1968-2005 Average 44.6 43.9 42.5 53.5 184.5 MAY JUNE JULY AUG SEPT OCT NOV DEC TOTAL 7 0 0 .0 0 100 90 6 0 0 .0 0 80 5 0 0 .0 0 70 60 4 0 0 .0 0 50 3 0 0 .0 0 40 30 2 0 0 .0 0 20 1 0 0 .0 0 10 0 0 .0 0 WATER TOWN WATER USE (ML) 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC Process 23.9 14.6 13.1 16.7 15.0 13.5 3 . 3 0.7 0.7 0.8 1.1 Amenity 1.6 11.6 6.6 1 . 2 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.4 6.6 5.0 4.0 2.6 4 0.0 1.4 3 5.0 1.2 3 0.0 1.0 2 5.0 0.8 2 0.0 0.6 1 5.0 0.4 1 0.0 0.2 5 .0 0.0 0 .0 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 JA N FE B M A R A P R M A Y JU N JU L A UG S E P O CT NO V DE C AIR GREENHOUSE GAS (GHG) TOTAL (Mt) & GHG EMISSION EFFICENCY (t/MWh) 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 1.42 1.62 1.56 1.45 1.34 1.25 1.20 1.38 1.42 1.53 1.23 1.27 1.50 1.45 1.47 1.31 1 . 5 1 GHG Mt GHG t/MWh 1.34 1.35 1.33 1.32 1.31 1.33 1.38 1.34 1.30 1.30 1.24 1.19 1.21 1.21 1.20 1.21 1 . 2 1 2 1600000 1 .8 1400000 1 .6 1 .4 1 .2 1200000 1000000 1 800000 0 .8 600000 0 .6 400000 0 .4 200000 0 .2 0 0 ANGLESEA ENVIRONMENT REPORT APRIL 2006 environmental improvement Environmental Management Targets April 2006 Total Forecast 2006 Target Reportable Environmental Incidents 0 0 0 0 Monthly EHS ASAT Audit Completion (%) 100 100 100 90 Air Emission Targets April 2006 Total Forecast 2006 Target Ambient SO2 ( no. readings > 210ppb) 0 0 0 0 Stack SO2 (no. hrs > 100kg/min) 0 0 0 0 SO2 Load Reductions 16 29 87 N/A 1.23 1.21 1.21 1.20 0 0 0 0 GHG Efficiency (t CO2 e/MWh) Opacity (10 min av > 0.25g/m normal operation) 3 # Visible emissions may have been observed from the stack during the month as a result of station outages. Water Targets April 2006 Total Forecast 2006 Target Town Water (ML) 1.5 4.5 13.5 17.2 Bore Water (ML) 237 1044 3132 2440 Waste Targets April 2006 Total Forecast 2006 Target Waste to Landfill (t) 0.0 2.7 8.1 10.0 Solid Prescribed Waste to Landfill (t) 0.0 0.0 0.0 0 Mine Rehabilitation Targets 2006 Total 2006 Target 2006 Area Cleared (ha) 3.3 3.3 2006 Area Rehabilitated (ha) 7.5 > 3.3 2005 Mine Rehabilitation Species Richness (%) N/A 100 OUR ENVIRONMENT AND OUR EMPLOYEES.. Kelvin, what role did you play in the completion of the 2006 rehabilitation? I assisted with the collection of the understorey mulch from the strip area; took part in the tree clearing and pushing the timber around to bury it on the rehab site; mixed the mulch with subsoil and loaded it into the muck spreader; and completed about half of the contour ripping. As a rrelatively elatively new employee at Anglesea, what’ s what’s your view on the way Alcoa manages the rehabilitation process? After working on site for two contractors before working for Alcoa, I was aware of the old way of doing rehab. This is a totally different concept that seems to work well. It took a while to get used to the finished product without the trees. Was it difficult to incorporate the rehabilitation tasks into your normal ‘production’ workload? No it worked in quite easily. ...KELVIN JEFFS