An innovative approach to manage air quality and noise issues in the coal fields in the Hunter Valley and Western regions of New South Wales has won the NSW Minerals Council 2013 Environment Excellence Award. Glencore Xstrata and Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM) were recognised for the development of an integrated Air Quality Control System (AQCS) now in use at mines across New South Wales. A key feature of the project is that it increases awareness of environmental management amongst employees and allows them to plan their operations to minimise impacts.
The awards were independently judged by an expert panel, including senior representatives from the NSW Environment Protection Authority, the NSW Department of Planning, the Department of Trade and Investment, the Australian Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility, and engineering firm Umwelt. NSW Minerals Council CEO Stephen Galilee announced the award as part of the industry’s annual Environment and Community Conference, attended by around 300 delegates who had gathered to discuss topics such as sustainability, mine rehabilitation and air quality.
The initial objective of the project was to develop a process that encompassed both a reactive and predictive component to assist Glencore operations in minimising impacts from blasting, air quality and noise management activities. SKM Project Manager, Shane Lakmaker said one of the key objectives of the initiative was to raise awareness of environmental issues at all levels of Glencore’s NSW open cut mine sites. “To achieve this objective, Glencore initiated the development of the AQCS so as to provide site personnel with information on daily environmental risks associated with air quality, noise and blasting,” Lakmaker said. “The AQCS was developed based on daily, automated modelling of meteorological conditions, dust emissions and noise attenuation.”
The final system consisted of: an environmental forecast summary report emailed to site personnel each morning; a website that allows users to garner a better understanding of the detailed information used to support the environmental forecast summary report, and a tool to assist sites in predicting blast plume paths for any time of day within the next 48 hours. SKM advised on the modelling approaches and developed the system using the inputs from Glencore and site representatives. Initial system development commenced in November 2011 and was followed by consultation at various sites, with feedback collected on usage and improvements.
The system is now in place at Mangoola, Bulga Complex, Mt Owen Complex, Liddell, Ravensworth Surface Operations and Ulan. For each site, the system makes use of detailed mine plans, equipment inventories and material handling quantities in order to calculate dust emissions. Meteorology is predicted from synoptic scale forecasts (NCEP), nested down to the site and taking account of local topography and landuse, while dispersion calculations are made using the CALPUFF model. “The early involvement of mine staff meant that the final system was more easily understood by end users, resulting in a greater acceptance of the intent and implementation,” Lakmaker said. “Similarly, the involvement of Glencore was important to address the higher level compliance objectives, and to review transferability to other sites.” Implementation of the system has contributed the following benefits:
• Higher employee awareness of potential environmental issues
• An increase in the number of employees empowered with responsibility for environmental management (from 10 to 120+ people receiving the daily environmental forecasts)
• Productivity improvements due to the identification of favourable environmental conditions
• No exceedances of project specific air quality criteria at sites
• Provides the community and regulator additional confidence that Glencore is proactively managing impacts