3-AD006.00 SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT WAIHI NORTH PROJECT Oceana Gold New Zealand Limited WSP June 2022 iii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Oceana Gold New Zealand Limited (OGNZL) propose the expansion of the Waihi Gold Mine, known as the Waihi North Project (WNP) which consists of the following main components: • Wharekirauponga Underground Mine (WUG) – a new underground mine beneath the Coromandel Forest Park with associated surface infrastructure, on farmland, at the end of Willows Road including a temporary rock stack, an access portal, and underground tunnels connecting to the ore body and the Waihi Processing Plant. • Gladstone Open Pit (GOP) – a new open pit mine on OGNZL land near the existing Waihi Processing Plant. • Tailings Storage Facility 3 (TSF3) – a new tailings facility east of the current facilities. • Northern Rock Stack – a new rock stockpile, north of the current tailings storage facilities. • Water Treatment Plant upgrade and reconsenting of the existing treated water discharge. • Processing Plant upgrade. The total direct workforce required to support the WNP is an average of 292 full time equivalents (FTE’s) over a 17-year period (2022-2038). The workforce requirements for the WNP are over and above the existing workforce of approximately 380 FTE’s. This is a substantial new development that has both positive and negative social effects. The overall intention of the Social Impact Assessment (SIA) is to ensure that the negative impacts are identified, understood, and effectively avoided, remedied or mitigated, and that potential benefits of the project are acknowledged and enhanced where possible. The social impact of the project has been analysed using the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) assessment framework. Key to the process is understanding the current social context (baseline) and engaging the community, stakeholder groups, and individuals to understand their interests and perspectives and what measures can be applied to avoid, remedy or mitigate adverse effects and enhance positive effects. Use was made of a range of engagement tools targeting the broader community to more directed methods for identified stakeholder groups. In addition, a “social lens” was applied to a number of specialist studies1 to ensure that the social effects identified were being addressed through mitigation measures and or enhancement measures applied by traffic, noise, air emissions, blast and vibration, light, visual, economic, and recreation specialists. The recommendations of these specialist reports were supported in their entirety and additional social measures were then also applied to ensure the social effects were appropriately avoided, remedied or mitigated. Social measures included Memoranda of Understanding with organisations 1 Transportation Assessment (Stantec, 2022), Assessment of Noise Effects (Marshall Day Acoustics, 2022), Blasting and Vibration Assessment (Heilig & Partners, 2022), Air Discharge Assessments (Beca, 2022), Lighting Assessment (Pedersen Read Limited 2021), Landscape, Natural Character and Visual Effects Assessment (Boffa Miskell, 2022), Recreation and Tourism Assessment (Rob Greenaway & Associates, 2022), Dam Breach Assessment (Engineering Geology Limited, 2021), and Social Impact Assessment Dam Breach (WSP New Zealand 2022).
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