In consultation with the community, resources company Aurelia Metals recently announced last ore will be hauled to the surface of its Dargues Gold Mine near Majors Creek in a little over 12 months.
The final truck of ore will make its way to Dargues' processing plant sometime in September 2024 where it will be turned into gold concentrate before being trucked to Port Botany for shipping.
General Manager, Angus Wyllie said during its life, the Dargues Mine has been proud to contribute to a more vibrant community in Majors Creek and Braidwood.
“Through our operations at Dargues, we've supported more than 150 local jobs, with $60M in wages paid, $11M spent with local businesses and the Council, $5M paid in royalties and taxes, and $100k in donations made to the community since mining began in 2019,” Mr Wyllie said.
"When I look back, there's a few standouts I believe have made a real difference, such as our contribution to accommodation for medical practitioners to ensure the Braidwood Medical Centre can operate. There is also as our annual Dargues Community Grants Program that has seen grants of up to $3,000 awarded to groups to undertake a wide range of activities that benefit the Majors Creek, Araluen and Braidwood communities.
"It's always humbling to give back to the community where we're privileged to operate. I think we've created a fantastic partnership built on open dialogue."
"And openly passionate is how the community feel about the beautiful environment where they live. For this reason, responsible water management, as well as mine site noise, has been top of the agenda since the mine commenced operations".
"Our Dargues' Community Consultative Committee, of which Eurobodalla Shire Council (ESC) is a member, is across every noise complaint and environmental concern we receive at the mine. They have been the impetus for the Company going above and beyond what's required by industry regulation alone," Mr Wyllie said.
Following an increase in noise complaints in late 2022, Aurelia engaged a third-party consultant to conduct a noise audit across the Dargues site. While this audit confirmed the mine's ventilation fan was the source of the night-time noise reported by the community, it also concluded Dargues was operating within noise limits outlined in its Mining Licence.
Despite this, Aurelia pursued a custom-built silencer for the ventilation fan which has provided superior noise attenuation for the Majors Creek community.
Matt Darwon, a member of the Dargues Community Consultative Committee thanked Aurelia for their action. “This is such a great result and a huge relief for us, so a big thank you to the management team at Aurelia for seeing this project through to completion," Mr Darwon said.
With water also a focus area for the community, the mine has a water management framework that ensures regular underground and surface water monitoring occurs and any incident is treated seriously.
Water management data is publicly reported on the Aurelia Metals' website.
In late July, Dargues recorded elevated electrical conductivity within the mine site at Spring Creek. Levels returned to normal within 48 hours.
"We are working with the EPA and our Community Consultative Committeee to understand what happened. We’re committed to sharing learnings across our sites and with the broader industry to ensure these types of incidents can be prevented in the future,” Mr Wyllie said.
The last survey of aquatic health was in 2021 which concluded that there did not appear to have be a negative impact on stream ecology from mining at that time. The Coastwatchers Association are pressing for more recent survey results to be published on the company’s website, and will push for downstream water quality and ecosystem health surveys, and transparency of reporting, during the rehabilitation phase and after mine close-out.
When the Dargues Mine reaches its end of life in 12 months time, the focus will shift to rehabilitation, where the priority will be on long term stability of the tailings’ containment structure, measures to mitigate erosion entering surface waters, and long-term monitoring. The job will not be done until the mine site is rehabilitated and closed out, which could be at least a decade from now.
“It’s not the end for Dargues yet though,” Mr Wyllie said.
“While we continue to mine, we look forward to maintaining our contribution to the local community. We want to make sure we leave a lasting legacy for our community members, many who are our employees, once Aurelia Metals has moved on.”
