Nadene Baldwin, Superintendent Environment at Argyle Diamonds speaks to Mining IQ about the water management practices at Argyle Diamond that made them a nominee at the Golden Gecko Awards.

Your team was nominated for the Golden Gecko Awards for water management practices – what do you think makes your project stand out?

I believe that we’ve made a major difference in water management on site. Five years ago, we were withdrawing 3.5 million litres of water from Lake Argyle. Last year we withdrew 120 thousand litres. So we’ve had a significant reduction in this - up to 90%. From an environmental point of view, that’s fantastic since we’ve definitely minimised our impact on the environment. But there were definitely a lot of improvements in other areas too.

From a business point of view, this also represented significant cost-savings. It was expensive to withdraw water from Lake Argyle since its 35 kilometres away.

From a mine site point of view, we’ve learnt how to manage water better. By reducing water withdrawal from Lake Argyle, we could concentrate on the water we use on site and get a better understanding of our water system. And it’s also made quite a difference for those on the mine site as well, including how this project has changed their mind set about water.

It’s not only made an environmental contribution – such as reducing water usage, reducing water discharge, recycling water – but for those who have worked on this project, they’ve also got a better understanding of water management. And of course, there’s also been a good contribution to Argyle’s bottom line.

KEY POINT - Argyle Diamond has reduced its water withdrawal from Lake Argyle by up to 90%. In 2006, they withdrew 3.5 million litres of water; in 2010 they withdrew 120,000 litres.

Insight into a Golden Gecko Award Nominee:

Argyle Diamonds

How can other mine sites learn from your practices?

One important thing was that this project wasn’t enforced on us; it was really about achieving best practice in water management. From a holistic point of view, it’s about understanding your current situation and assessing what’s worked (and not worked) for you; and then asking how you can improve processes.

So for many companies, it’s about challenging the status quo and not being complacent. We should really look at past processes and try to improve on particular areas. After all, what this ultimately means is a better outcome for the environment and personal management, and it even improves daily operations.

Can you talk about what future plans Argyle Diamond has to ensure sustainable water management in its mine site?

We still believe we have a long way to go. Currently, we’re recycling about 30-40% of our water, and our target this year is 48%. Whilst we’ve achieved our past water recycling targets, we’re currently not reaching this 48% target.

We’re also continuously asking why we are losing water; whether it’s from evaporation or through creek ways. Whilst there are some dams on site that have helped us reduce the water we’re withdrawing from Lake Argyle, they’re still costly. As a result, we have to look at how we can entrain water a lot better through saturated tailings etc.

So there’s still a lot of education and continuous improvement in this area. We shouldn’t accept that just because we’re surrounded by water that we should therefore be complacent and treat it like an unlimited resource.

Water management should be considered throughout the life of the mine plan, but in terms of mine closure and water, what do you think the key is? When closing mines, how can we make sure there’s no/minimal damage to the environment?

We’re lucky in that our water quality is fairly good, so we don’t have to worry about this as much as other mine sites. But regardless of this, water quality is definitely something we need to get a better understanding of in the mine closure process.

We have to ask: what is going to be our post-closure water quality procedure? How can we minimise our impact around closure? Right now it’s about what the water quality might look like when we close. It’s also about understanding what it means for our surrounding ground water, so we’re currently doing a lot of work around this. When we close – sometime post-2019 – we need to be sure that we’ve had minimum impact on surface and ground water quality.

At the moment, we’ve got some acid rock drainage on site. 5-10 years ago, we noticed that downstream, there was some magnesium sulphate and excess salt. So this was obviously not good for the environment, so between 2005 and 2008 we focused on our downstream impact of acid rock drainage and how this would affect us going into closure.

So what the work showed was that the water quality from acid rock drainage is one of the most important issues in water management. So we had to make sure the water quality parameters were met and that we didn’t breach our license criteria. In particular, we had to look out for sulphate, PH levels and TDS levels etc. So the work in the 2005-2008 periods in a way set what our mine site criteria should be.

KEY POINT - In preparing for mine closure, environmental managers need to ask: What is going to be our post-closure water quality procedure? How can we minimise our impact around closure?

KEY POINT - Next step in water management for Agryle Diamond: Increasing water recycling target, reduce water loss and educate those in mining operations that water is not an unlimited resource.

SOURCE: Green Photography www.greenphoto.com.au

Insight into a Golden Gecko Award Nominee:

Argyle Diamonds

Where do you think a lot of mining companies (perhaps even Argyle Diamond) fall short on in terms of successful water management? Why is this happening?

Obviously minimising environmental impact is what I do and what I’m concerned with. But from a business point of view, what they could improve on is how we use water from a processing point of view and how we use water in the overall business. There’s a view - especially when you’re located near a lake like us - that water is an unlimited resource. And this is definitely a view a lot of people have. Whilst the results from our water reduction program has been fantastic, we were asked at the Golden Gecko awards how we were reducing water use on site. And honestly speaking, we haven’t really done this.

From a business point of view, we should ask how we can improve water usage on site, especially in our operations, camps, even drinking water and dispel the idea that water is an unlimited resource. Even though going forward we’re looking at improving our recycling target at Argyle Diamond, there’s definitely room for us to look at how we can improve water processes and how we can reduce the water we use at the camp.

It’s ultimately about looking at operations and the mine site as a whole, or even particular departments and understanding how water is used.

KEY POINT - The next step for Argyle Diamond is to look strategically at their mine site and operations as a whole to understand water usage from a processing point of view. This extends to areas like drinking water and water at the camps

Argyle Diamond was nominated for the Golden Gecko Awards

for Best Practice in Water Management in 2010. Nadene

Baldwin, Superintendent – Environment at Argyle Diamond

is a presenter at Mining IQ’s Water Management in Mining event, to be held in Perth in

December 2011.

For more information about Water Management in Mining 2011, please:

Visit www.watermgmtmining.com.au

Call 02 9229 1000

Email Enquire@iqpc.com.au

What are the best practice strategies for companies to adopt when it comes to water management?

One reason we had some good success is because our leadership took water management on board and drove the idea that we should reduce our water withdrawal from Lake Argyle. In fact, it came down to the point where if anyone needed to withdraw water from Lake Argyle, it needed the GM’s approval.

Having leadership that understands the purpose, context and values water management really makes a massive difference. Because if we see our leaders communicate this and set strict rules and accountability, it goes a long way.

Also, it’s important to get those in various departments to recognise and appreciate the value and purpose of water usage and management.

And although I hate it say it, financial incentives definitely drives business decision-making. If there’s going to be a benefit from improved water management, whether it’s environmental or financial, there will be greater support from stakeholders.

KEY POINT - Best Practice for water management in mining according to Argyle Diamond: leadership buy-in, stakeholder engagement and education and financial incentives

Insight into a Golden Gecko Award Nominee:

Argyle Diamonds