Progress - 2004

During 2004, environmental baseline reviews were conducted at the majority of WMC's operating sites and its Western Australian pastoral leases. Environmental baseline data and monitoring programs at the sites were determined to be well generally managed and appropriate for each site's specific environmental aspects. At some of the sites, opportunities were identified to improve environmental information through additional baseline studies, enhanced monitoring activities and better information management. Specific opportunities for improvement include:

• risk assessments of threatening processes and impacts on fauna and flora to prioritise monitoring programs
• monitoring potential impacts on native flora arising from process emissions and/or dusts from mine and plant facilities
• additional fauna surveys, and
• records management

Also, during 2004, the World Conservation Union and International Council on Mining and Metals included an article on the Arid Recovery project in their joint publication ‘Integrating Mining and Biodiversity Conservation - case studies from around the world’, recognising the Arid Recovery project at Olympic Dam as a benchmark minerals-industry biodiversity-management project. Arid Recovery is a joint conservation initiative involving WMC and stakeholders from the community, academia and South Australian government.

During 2005, we plan to establish a program in the Northern Goldfields Region of Western Australia that will combine the objectives of biodiversity conservation and sustainable land management practices on pastoral leases in the vicinity of our mining operations at Mt Keith and Leinster. The program will involve setting aside land for conservation purposes as a voluntary offset against future land disturbance associated with nickel projects. It will aim to align with, and build on, other regional sustainability initiatives and draw on the lessons learned from our experiences with the Arid Recovery project's joint stakeholder involvement.

• Read about Our Approach to Land Management & Biodiversity.