A guide to leading practice sustainable development in mining

Airborne Contaminants, Noise and Vibration
Air
During the construction phase, there is a range of activities, such as earthmoving
and road construction, which generate dust, possibly at higher levels than during the
operational stage, at least for parts of the project site. If those parts of the site are
close to sensitive areas, attention will need to be given to controlling dust emissions,
especially under adverse dry and windy conditions. Any baseline monitoring
will continue through this stage. Also, if there is a potential for dust impacts on
neighbours arising from construction, the situation may warrant the installation
of one or more dust-monitoring instruments which can be used (at the boundary
or at the sensitive location) to capture real time data and send an alarm when a
predefined dust concentration is reached. In this way, activities can be controlled to
minimise short-term dust events in response to the early-warning capability. These
types of instruments are not compliant with regulatory standards and cannot be
used for compliance monitoring, but are very useful for real time management.
Noise
Leading practice mandates the implementation of a comprehensive monitoring and
audit program during the construction, commissioning and operations phase, and
even the closure and rehabilitation phases. The monitoring program provides the
mining company with a means to maintain a continuous record of environmental
noise emissions. Technology also allows the mine manager to have real time
access to data, from monitoring locations at residences around the mine, on which
operational decisions can be made. The audit program also addresses the company’s
procedures for dealing with complaints and ensuring quality objectives are met.
Ventilation fans are essential in underground mining but have the potential to cause
significant disruption to the lifestyle amenity of the community. The following case
illustrates the measures that can be undertaken to reduce the community impact and
implement leading practice. Sinking a 315m ventilation shaft is challenging enough
and when you place that project in a residential area of a regional city you need to do
your homework.
Ballarat Gold started planning for the ventilation shaft in 2006, well before the
planned construction commencement date of July 2006. With some Ballarat
residents as close as 60m from the worksite, significant effort was put into
planning to minimise the impact on the neighbours. Extensive consultation with
the community was undertaken prior, during and after each phase of construction.
One on one consultation with the immediate neighbours took place during the early
planning stage using diagrams of each phase. Each neighbour was asked if they had
any concerns, with most being concerned about potential blast vibration, noise, work
hours and dust.
The company has a long history of good community engagement, so many of the
community were interested in the project and supportive. The information gathered
from community surveys was incorporated into the final plans. For example, the
site layout was changed to accommodate two neighbours, moving parking bays,
installing visual screens to ensure car lights did not shine into the neighbour’s
66 LEADING PRACTICE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM FOR THE MINING INDUSTRY