1 Tonkin & Taylor Ltd Hazardous Substances Technical Assessment – Waihi North Project - Storage and use of hazardous substances at Willows Road site and the Wharekirauponga Underground Mine Oceana Gold (New Zealand) Limited June 2022 Job No: 1015212.1000 vRev0 1 Introduction 1.1 Project overview OceanaGold (New Zealand) Ltd (OGNZL) is seeking resource consent from the Hauraki District Council (HDC) and Waikato Regional Council (WRC) to establish a new mining operation known as the ‘Wharekirauponga Underground Mine’ (WUG) as part of the Waihi North Project (WNP). The WUG is located approximately 10 km north of the township of Waihi. The resource lies beneath the Coromandel Forest Part administered by the Department of Conservation (DOC) and within the Wharekirauponga Minerals Mining Permit (60541) area. The proposal includes the storage and use of hazardous substances to service the establishment and operation of the mine with a portal entrance on land owned by OGNZL at Willows Road, Waihi. The portal entrance site will include surface storage of six high explosives (H.E) magazines, one initiating explosives (I.E) magazine, a store for oxidising substances and storage of fuels, workshop gases and oils for servicing equipment. Once access to the ore body has been established (within four years), it is expected that underground facilities will be established for the substances regularly used at the mining face. This will include establishment of six H.E and I.E. storage chambers, two compounds for storage of oxidising substances, one for gasser (a low toxicity substance for use with the oxidisers) and up to two small portable diesel tanks within the mine extending beneath the Coromandel Forest Park. The storage and use of hazardous substances is governed primarily by the Health and Safety at Work (Hazardous Substance) Regulations 2017 and further controlled by Resource Management Act 1991 via the Hauraki District Plan (HDP). The proposed use and storage of hazardous substances in the quantities proposed requires resource consent in accordance with the HDP. Any new storage and use of hazardous substances under Rule 7.7.12(5) requires the use of the Hazardous Facility Screening Procedure (HFSP) to calculate an effects ratio for the activity, which can be compared to the permitted and restricted discretionary effects ratio thresholds set for each zone. However, there are no effects ratios provided for activities in the Conservation (Indigenous Forest) Zone, and as such the storage of substances in the mine is a non-complying activity under Rule 7.7.10 of the HDP. Tonkin & Taylor Ltd (T+T) has been engaged by OGNZL to prepare this hazardous substances assessment to support resource consent applications being prepared by OGNZL. This report has been prepared in accordance with our engagement letter dated 27 August 2021. 1.2 Assessment approach and background documents The approach to hazardous substances risk assessment in this report has been informed by the following sources, which are referenced where relevant: Assessment Guide for Hazardous Facilities (ME339), Ministry for the Environment, 2000 Assessment Guideline, Multi-level Risk Assessment. State of New South Wales through the Department of Planning, 2011 Land Use Planning Guide for Hazardous Facilities, Ministry for the Environment, 2002 Hazardous Industry Planning Advisory Paper No.4, Risk Criteria for Land Use Safety Planning. State of New South Wales through the Department of Planning, 2011 Decision making: A technical guide to identifying, assessing and evaluating risks, costs and benefits, Environmental Risk Management Authority, 2009
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