| Project Description | Waihi North Project Air Discharge Assessment - Waihi Surface Facilities | 4396626-1331619777-99 | 16/06/2022 | 9 2.2 Gladstone Open Pit 2.2.1 Introduction The GOP will be bounded by Union Hill to the north-west, Black Hill and part of Winner Hill to the south, and the existing overland conveyor to the north. The GOP will disturb an area of approximately 18.7 ha and will be approximately 95m deep (1005 mRL). The footprint of the proposed GOP development is shown in Figure 2-2. The mining method used for GOP will be drill, blast and haul, which is the same method used at the Martha Open Pit mine when it was in operation. The development of GOP will include initial preparatory works (e.g. the clearance of pine trees), open pit mining, mining operations and the rehabilitation of the pit and surrounding area. The key works of relevance to air quality include: ● Vegetation clearance ● Topsoil removal and storage at the Southern Stockpile ● The haulage of rock and ore to the Run of Mine (ROM) stockpile ● Constructing a new crusher and interconnecting conveyor to transport material from GOP to the NRS area ● Conveying and haulage of waste rock to new NRS (for temporary or permanent storage) and to the new TSF3 (for construction) ● Establishing a new Portal “WUG Portal” to the north of the existing mainland conveyor ● Relocating the existing Favona Portal and related infrastructure in the north wall of the GOP or adjacent to the WUG Portal ● Open pit mining of GOP including drilling and blasting ● Backfilling of GOP with rock and tailings ● Rehabilitation and closure. The vegetation clearance and topsoil removal and stockpiling are expected to occur in the first two years of the project. The GOP would then be mined over an estimated 6-year period at an average mining rate of 3.5 million tonnes per year (Mtpa). A total of 2.6Mt of ore and 18.7Mt of rock waste would be extracted from the mine. Rock from the GOP may be stored at the existing central and eastern stockpile areas, at the NRS, and used for constructing the TSF3 starter embankment. Soil and selected non-acid forming (NAF) material will be temporarily stockpiled at the Southern Stockpile located to the southeast of the pit. The stored material will be used for capping and final rehabilitation of the proposed TSF. The Southern Stockpile will have a capacity of approximately 52,500 m3. The location of the stockpile is shown in Figure 2-2. Ore from the pit will be hauled directly to the ROM stockpile. A new crusher will be installed at the Processing Plant to crush oversize ROM ore and the jaw crusher that is currently located adjacent to the Martha Pit will be relocated to crush the rock prior to conveying. The Gladstone Pit will operate up to 24 hours a day, seven days per week between 7am and 10 pm when it can comply with the 50dB daytime noise limit and between 10pm and 7am when it can comply with the 40dB noise limit. Operations will include excavation, trucking of ore from the pit to the ROM stockpile, trucking rock to and from the Polishing Pond Stockpile (PPS), conveying to the existing rock and tailings storage area and within the pit.
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