Whitehaven Coal : TAR- CCC Draft Minutes Q4 2022

Notes:	Notes of the 70th Meeting of the Tarrawonga Coal Community Consultative Committee	Wednesday 23 November 2022
	Held at the Tarrawonga Coal Mine Training Room

Members Present: Alison Quiroz (AQ) - TCM, Cr Rob Hooke - Gunnedah Shire Council (RH), Elizabeth O'Hara (EOH) - Community Representative, Jackie Scott (JS) - WHC, Mark Hathway (MH) - Community Representative, Megan Martin (MM) - TCM, Landon Brady (LB) - Narrabri Shire Council, Omar Romeril (OR) - TCM

Apologies: Cr Cathy Redding (CR) - Narrabri Shire Council, Colleen Fuller (CF) - Community Representative, Cr Daryl Tiemens - Narrabri Shire Council, Lloyd Finlay (LF) - Community Representative, Michelle Henry (MH) - Narrabri Shire Council, Rebecca Ryan (RR) - Community Representative, Wade Hudson (WH) - GSC Representative

Independent Chair: David Ross (DR)	Independent Secretary: Debbie Corlet (DC)
Agenda Items		Who to Present
1.	Welcome and Apologies		DR
2.	Declaration of pecuniary or other interests		DR
3.	Minutes from Previous Meeting		DR
4.	Actions from Previous Meeting		DR
5.	Mine Progress Report		WHC
6.	Environmental Monitoring Report		WHC
7.	General Business		ALL
8.	Next Meeting - Wednesday 22 February 2023		ALL

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Agenda Item Discussion

Action/By Whom

1. Welcome and Apologies - DR welcomed everyone to the CCC meeting.
2. Declaration of pecuniary or other interests - EOH has a small package of WHC shares. DR is paid a fee as chair as is DC for typing the minutes.
3. Minutes from Previous Meeting - Everyone was comfortable that the August 2022 minutes appropriately reflected what was discussed.
   EOH commented on WHC response to question on notice from last time - re WHC consistently over-estimating in its EISs the quality of the coal that is produced from the mines in general and MC in particular. The response, that Whitehaven would not respond to a published Market Forces report, was disappointing.
4. Actions from Previous Meeting - All actions have been completed.
5. Mine Progress Report - Operations - Q4 - CY22
   OR commenced the report by providing members with an update on the mine's safety statistics before discussing how mining has progressed.
   With respect to the mine's donations and sponsorships, donations for July to September were over $92,000 in the local community. Sponsorships and Donations information can be found https://whitehavencoal.com.au/sustainability/community/donations-sponsorships/
   JS provided an update on the mine's community investment strategy.
6. Environmental Monitoring Report
   Environmental

1. provided an update on environmental activities over the past quarter. These included:
   • Topsoil stripping for the next 12-months of mining planned to commence soon.
   • Flocculated water continuing to be discharged from SD9 and SD17 in accordance with the EPL.
   • Rehabilitation of southern emplacement area has started to enable revegetation in 2023.
   • Blast Management Plan reviewed and submitted to the Department of Planning - consultation with the EPA has been
   completed and the BMP resubmitted to DPE.
   • Consultation completed on the Rehabilitation Management Plan. This will be addressed before being lodged with DPE.

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Monitoring and Compliance

Noise, blasting and air quality all within TCM's approval criteria.

Tyre Disposal Update

Tyre burial events are planned for Q4. A risk assessment was held at Tarrawonga for WHC's 2022 tyre burial program. The burial of -60 tyres is currently being planned and will occur in late Nov / Dec in accordance with EPL 12365.

EOH noted that decisions have been made by the Environment Ministers on 21 October 2022 to "work with the private sector to design out waste and pollution, keep materials in use and foster markets to achieve a circular economy by 2030" and "that the Australian Government add end of life tyres to the Minister's Product Stewardship Priority List, signalling the intention to regulate should industry not lift its game." She then asked for an update on tyre recycling.

1. - We're working on it. The EPA very keen to get something sorted.

EOH - It's not just a WHC problem at the moment, it is something that the community could be involved in as a group.

A discussion then took place about:

• the difficulty in being able to recycle the tyres;
• the need for TCM to show the EPA in 2023 that progress has been made;
• local government is also grappling with the issue; and
• the EPA having circular grants out at the moment to encourage private and the public sector to develop more strategies around this.

Water Management - Managing a Wet Year

There has been rainfall of 797mm up to 20 October compared to average of 568mm for a full year at Gunnedah Airport.

MM discussed how they adapt the operations at the mine to adjust to a wet year as well as how they respond to rain events.

1. - Any rainfall under 38.4 mm is met with very strict water quality requirements. The EPA doesn't hold the mine to the
   TSS (Total Suspended Solids) monitoring requirements if there has been a big rain event, which is why it's very important that the dams are empty before the rain event. We have 26 dams on site. All are under our Water Management Plan. We also take samples to a lab - if you discharge it needs to go to the lab for analysis. We have 12-hours to do that. Samples are taken upstream and downstream of each dam. Downstream lets us know if we are impacting the environment.

Labs are used in Gunnedah, Tamworth and Sydney. TCM has to send seven or eight bottles.

ACTION 1 - MM to report at next CCC steps taken for tyre disposal

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RH - When you're building a dam and you have a leak in the bottom - do you have to put a liner in?
MM - Not for sediment water but for mine waters - definitely a liner has to go in. Constructed dams with a high degree of
engineering quality. Monitored by Dams NSW.	ACTION 2 - MM to
LB - Stormwater collection over the life of the mine? Do you do estimations around rising levels?	add the ground
water slide back into
MM - Will add ground water slide back in.
presentation

7.General Business

EOH - With respect to the quality of the coal. Government review of the extension and the consistent pattern of WHC overestimating of its coal in the planning stages, would the mine care to comment?

1. - It's outside the scope of Tarrawonga.

DR - CCC guidelines being revised after five years of being in place. Next year there will be a requirement for me to talk to	ACTION 3 - DR to
distribute revised
you about the revised guidelines. There will be a Terms of Reference that needs to be created specific to the needs of this
CCC Guidelines 2
CCC and its members. We'll have to talk about this at some time.
weeks prior to
	meeting
DR reminded members that the committee has developed a schedule of presentations for forthcoming meetings in 2023.	ACTION 4 - MM to
The next presentation is on the rehabilitation reforms.
organise Alison to
MM - Alison to present on rehab at the next meeting.
present on rehab at
	the next meeting

8.Next meeting date - Next meeting Wednesday 22 February 2023 at 10:00 am.

Meeting Closed: 11:36 am.

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			Appendix 1: Actions
Page No	Action No	Description	Date Raised
3	1	MM to report at next CCC steps taken for tyre disposal	23 November 2022
4	2	MM to add the ground water slide back into presentation	23 November 2022
4	3	DR to distribute revised CCC Guidelines 2 weeks prior to meeting	23 November 2022
4	4	MM to organise Alison to present on rehab at the next meeting	23 November 2022

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