EXTENSION TO THE WILUNA URANIUM PROJECT (CMS 14025)
ASSESSMENT NO: 2002
ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING DOCUMENT
FEBRUARY 2015
ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING DOCUMENT
PROPOSAL NAME: EXTENSION TO THE WILUNA URANIUM PROJECT
ASSESSMENT NUMBER: 2002 (CMS 14025)
LOCATION: MINING AT TWO LOCATIONS, 30 KILOMETRES AND 105 KILOMETRES SOUTH OF WILUNA
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
AREA:
SHIRE OF WILUNA
PROPONENT: TORO ENERGY LIMITED
PUBLIC REVIEW PERIOD: 2 WEEKS (ESD); 12 WEEKS (PER) EPBC REFERENCE NO.: EPBC 2014/7138
1. Introduction
The above proposal is being assessed by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) under Part IV of the Environmental Protection Act 1986 (EP Act) at the level of Public Environmental Review (PER). This Environmental Scoping Document (ESD) sets out the requirements for the environmental review of the proposal. The purpose of an ESD is to:
· provide proposal-specific guidelines to direct the proponent on the preliminary key environmental factors or issues that are to be addressed during the environmental review and preparation of the environmental review report; and
· identify the required work that needs to be carried out.
Toro Energy Limited (Toro), the proponent, will conduct the environmental review in accordance with this ESD and then report to the EPA in an environmental review report (PER document). As well as the proposal-specific requirements for the environmental review identified in this ESD, the PER document must also address the generic information requirements listed in section 10.2.4 of the EPA's Environmental Impact Assessment (Part IV Divisions 1 and 2) Administrative Procedures 2012 (Administrative Procedures). When the EPA is satisfied that the PER document adequately addresses both of these requirements, Toro will release the document for a public review period of 12 weeks.
This ESD has been prepared by Toro in consultation with the Office of the EPA, decision- making authorities and interested agencies and released for a two week public review period consistent with EPA Environmental Assessment Guideline (EAG) 10 - Scoping a proposal. The ESD will be available on the EPA website (www.epa.wa.gov.au) upon endorsement and must be appended to the PER document.
Assessment under Bilateral Agreement
The proposal has been referred and determined to be a controlled action under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and is being assessed under the Bilateral Agreement between the Commonwealth of Australia and the State of Western Australia made under section 45 of that Act. The relevant matters of national environmental significance (MNES) for this proposal are:
· Listed threatened species and communities; and
· Nuclear actions.
This ESD is inclusive of work required to be carried out and reported on in the PER document in relation to MNES.
2. The proposal
The subject of this ESD is Toro's proposed Extension to the Wiluna Uranium Project which involves the mining of two deposits, Millipede and Lake Maitland, as well as the construction of a haul road and associated infrastructure. The regional location of the proposal is shown in Figure 2 of Attachment 1.
The Wiluna Uranium Project was the subject of EPA Assessment 1819 (EPA Report 1437). Following this assessment, the Western Australian Minister for Environment gave Toro approval in October 2012 (Ministerial Statement No. 913) to construct and operate a uranium mine consisting of two deposits, Centipede and Lake Way, respectively located approximately 30 kilometres (km) south and 15 km south-east of Wiluna. The Federal Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities also approved that proposal (EPBC 2009/5174) in April 2013.
Since initiating assessment of the Wiluna Uranium Project, Toro acquired two additional deposits, Millipede, also approximately 30 km south of Wiluna, and Lake Maitland, 105 km south-east of Wiluna, and proposes to integrate those deposits into an extended Wiluna Uranium Project.
Ore from Millipede and Lake Maitland would be processed at the same plant as ore from Centipede and Lake Way. The capacity of the processing plant already approved following EPA Assessment 1819 and EPBC 2009/5174 would not increase under this proposal to extend the Wiluna Uranium Project. However, the plant's operating life would double to beyond 20 years, the period during which sequential mining would be undertaken from the Centipede, Millipede, Lake Maitland and Lake Way deposits. During that period, the operation would produce up to 1200 tonnes per annum (tpa) of uranium oxi de concentrate (UOC). Construction and pre-mining are scheduled to begin at Centipede by late 2016 and at Millipede at the same time, subject to government approval and market conditions.
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