US gold and copper miner Newmont has applied to extend the mining license at Australia’s largest underground mine, Cadia, until 2050. This, in turn, will require expanding the mine area.
The company said the referral application to continue mining at Cadia, located 20 km from Orange, New South Wales, Australia, was submitted under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
Newmont is seeking to expand its operations using existing and new infrastructure and ancillary services, alongside continuing underground mining at Cadia East and Ridgeway.
If approved, the mine area would be slightly expanded to “accommodate expanded tailings storage capacity and infrastructure relocation,” the company said. In addition, the expansion will secure copper supplies and a decade-long pipeline of skilled local workers.
“Extension of Cadia’s operations will secure more than 2,100 full-time jobs, as well as the future of our local suppliers – more than half of whom have their head office based in New South Wales (NSW), with one-fifth having their head office in the Central West,” the company said.
In 2022/23, Cadia spent more than A$205 million ($135.7 million) on employee salaries, with almost 95% of Cadia’s 1,386 full-time employees based in the Central West region. Three-quarters, or about A$91 million ($60 million), of Cadia’s annual household expenditure on goods and labour services was spent in Orange.
Under a bilateral agreement between the federal and New South Wales governments, the application will be assessed by the state’s Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure on behalf of the Commonwealth. New South Wales has already declared the continuation of the Cadia mine a state-significant project on its Major Projects Planning Portal.
Newmont Minings is an American mining company. In 2020, it was the world’s largest gold producer (6% of global gold production). The company was ranked 337th on the 2021 Forbes Global 2000 list of the world’s largest public companies (234th by net income, 325th by market capitalization, 832nd by assets, 902nd by revenue).
Cadia is the country’s second-largest copper producer and the only Australia's largest active mine producing molybdenum, which is used in industry and defence.
Hélène Tarin, Editor-in-Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough&Polished
