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| Evolution's Cowal gold mining operation in New South Wales, Australia. |
Evolution Mining Ltd. Executive Chairman Jake Klein said the legacy of Barrick Gold Corp. in resurrecting community support for a previously environmentally contentious cyanide leaching gold operation at Cowal in New South Wales is aiding his efforts to get underground mining underway in the Australian state.
Klein said at the first Virtual Gold Conference on Aug. 20, hosted in Sydney, that with Evolution about to lodge its application for the underground mine, three of the local shires have voiced that they will support its development.
"To give them (Barrick) credit, the mine was quite controversial when it was built because it is on the ephemeral lake at Cowal and has abundant water," Klein said.
However, he said Barrick has operated Cowal "exceptionally well from an environmental sustainability perspective, to the point where the local communities really support the mine."
Cowal's underground development will create 300 jobs during the construction phase and 100 full-time jobs once operating, he added.
The project's then-operator, North Ltd., threatened to pull out of the state in 1996 after a New South Wales government commission of inquiry said mining may proceed but with strict environmental conditions, which would increase startup and operating costs.
Though North was prepared to go beyond the inquiry's recommendation for acceptable cyanide discharge levels to satisfy the then-state premier's concerns, the company's development plans were rejected after it prepared a rebuttal of the inquiry's findings.
North said in April 2000 that it would "hang on" to Cowal for continued evaluation despite shifting its focus away from gold exploration, but the company was taken over by Rio Tinto in August that year. In May 2001, the property was acquired by New York-listed Homestake Mining Co., which Barrick merged with in December that year.
In May 2003, Barrick reported reaching a Native Title agreement with the Wiradjuri Condobolin traditional owner group, which was necessary for mining lease approval, but that was challenged in the federal court by the Wiradjuri traditional owners.
Operations finally started in 2006, and though the planning minister initially accepted plans in 2008 to modify life-of-mine gold production from 2.7 million ounces to around 3.5 Moz and extend mine life by up to 11 years, an environmental assessment was undertaken and completed subsequent to public consultation.
Though local media reported that community concerns were raised when Barrick sought further mine life extension in 2014 about potential contamination of the channel that feeds Lake Cowal from toxic waste water, the miner said the channel and the mine were not hydrologically linked.
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| Evolution's Cowal gold mining operation. |
Promising future
Klein said Cowal was originally set to close in 2024 and was supposed to start processing stockpiles this year. However, the mine will now be going "at least into the 2030s and maybe longer."
Evolution announced a maiden 804,000-ounce underground ore reserve in July and an increased mineral resource of 2.9 Moz.
Klein said the significant drought in western New South Wales earlier in 2020 "did teach us a lesson that we need to be much more efficient at our water usage."
Evolution has installed a twin pipeline, and Klein said the company is looking for saline bore fields that are not nearly as saline as Western Australia's bore fields and are not suitable for agricultural use but "perfect" for mine use.
The Wyangala dam in the area went down to 6% water during the drought, but Klein said it is now around at 35% to 40% with subsequent rains. Even so, the company still needs to reduce reliance on fresh water needed for agricultural use.
"We recognize that, going forward, the more we can reduce our reliance on the fresh water sources, the better the community support is going to be, and the better corporate citizen we will be," he said.