When mining and exploration activity is approved by the department’s Resource and Environmental Compliance (REC) Group, conditions are assigned to ensure companies do the right thing by our community, the State and our unique environment.
Monitoring compliance with these conditions can look like many things, from desktop reviews, drones and satellite imagery, to travelling to remote regions of the State to inspect a site.
As Team Leader Jane Isler explains, our (REC) Group identify areas for proactive work and undertake routine inspections using a risk-based compliance approach. Her team attends site inspections identified in the department’s annual compliance plan which has approximately 100 exploration and mine sites for this financial year.
“An environmental site inspection is one method we use to ensure the responsible and sustainable development of WA’s mineral resources,” she said.
“A site may be included on our compliance plan due to its remaining mine life until closure, rehabilitation liability or how active the site has been in seeking approvals,” Jane said.
Sometimes the team will need to respond when a significant environmental incident has occurred, such as a tailings spill or other non-compliance.
“My team have 17 mine and exploration sites to visit this financial year, which has been split into four inspection trips.
“During an inspection, we visit the areas of the mine that we regulate under the Mining Act 1978. This can include areas such as tailings storage facilities, waste rock dumps and other mine-supporting infrastructure.”
Recently Jane and the team went to the South West for an inspection to determine the site’s compliance with tenement conditions and approvals documents. This also entailed identifying areas of the mine where environmental management could be improved or was being well managed and sharing closure and rehabilitation learnings with site’s environmental personnel.
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