Water Management

At Cadia, we use water from a variety of sources: surface water, ground water, tailings reclamation and mine dewatering.

Where practical, we recycle water to reduce consumption. Around 68 per cent of the water used at Cadia is recycled. Its main use it to process crushed ore into copper concentrate.

Our Water Management Plan demonstrates our site’s approach to water management, including onsite management and assessing potential impacts on local water resources. The plan covers surface water and groundwater resources in Cadiangullong Creek, Flyers Creek, Swallow Creek and Panuara Rivulet catchments.

The original water management plan was developed by Newcrest in consultation with the NSW Office of Water (NOW), Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water (DECCW) and local residents. Consultation with local residents was conducted in three focus groups:

• Surface water – residents along Flyers Creek

• Groundwater – residents within the predicted groundwater impact zone

• Groundwater plus – concerned residents from outside the predicted groundwater impact zone

Our monitoring program includes:

• Site water balance (inflows and outflows including licensed water extraction)

• Surface water flows and quality Groundwater levels and quality