NSW Environmental Protection Agency NSW Government
 

The Cadia mine

The NSW EPA is working with the local community to protect the environment. This includes sampling and monitoring air, soil and water quality in the area to provide information and data on the health of the local environment.

Regulation of Cadia mine

The NSW EPA is working to ensure that Newmont’s Cadia Holdings Pty Ltd mine in Central West NSW is operating in compliance with its environmental obligations, in a way that minimises impacts from their operations, and to safeguard the community and the environment.

Cadia Valley Operations are required to comply with site specific conditions and controls aimed at minimising the impacts from their operations on the environment and community.

The EPA completed the 5-year statutory licence review of the Cadia mine licence having received valuable feedback from a range of stakeholders. Consultation on the review of the licence ran for six weeks, from 11 March 2024 to 22 April 2024. The Consultation summary report is available, providing an overview of the key feedback heard during the public consultation.

The licence is being varied through a staged process and as part of this, changes were made in December 2024 to monitoring requirements for air, surface water and groundwater.

Key updates include:

  • PFAS monitoring: Cadia Valley Operations must now test for PFAS in groundwater on-site, in surface water leaving the site, and in nearby creeks and rivers. The monitoring will focus on the most concerning PFAS types – PFOS, PFOA and PFHxS.
  • PFAS pollution study: Cadia Valley Operations is required to conduct a study on PFAS use and presence across the Cadia mine site. This will help identify any additional PFAS compounds that may need monitoring and whether further licence changes are needed.
  • Silica monitoring: Cadia Valley Operations already monitors silica at mine ventilation exhaust points for worker safety. Based on community feedback, Cadia mine will now also monitor silica in the air at key locations around the site’s western, southern and eastern boundaries. These new conditions are included in the licence to ensure transparency.

The changes to the licence are reflected on the EPA’s public register.

We have also been investigating a range of community concerns related to air, water and soil quality, and have released reports on Lead isotope testing (including of soils and rainwater tank sediments), Air quality monitoring (air sampling) and Water sampling (surface water and groundwater). You can find these below.

Legal proceedings against Cadia mine

​The EPA has launched various prosecutions in the NSW Land and Environment Court against Cadia Holdings.

  • The EPA commenced three charges against Cadia alleging that in November 2021, March 2022 and May 2023, the mine exceeded the standard of concentration for solid particles (total) as a result of operating surface exhaust fans attached to Ventilation Rise 8. Cadia plead guilty to all three charges and a sentence hearing was held on 21 June 2024. Judgement was handed down on 2 April 2025 with Cadia Holdings ordered to pay over $400,000 for the air emissions offences.
  • The EPA also commenced two charges against Cadia relating to alleged air pollution from the surface of Cadia’s tailing storage facility in October 2022. Cadia Holdings have entered a plea of not guilty in relation to both charges and the matter is listed for mention on 13 June 2025.

The EPA will continue to monitor Cadia’s mining operations and licence compliance and will take necessary regulatory action, including prosecutions, where appropriate.

Planning modification for Cadia mine

For more information, go to the NSW Planning Portal.

Regulatory activity

March 2025

The EPA has imposed new licence conditions on the Environment Protection Licences of Cadia Valley Operations, Australian Native Landscapes (Blayney) and Blayney Landfill requiring each site to assess potential on and offsite impacts to inform the EPA’s future regulatory activities.

February 2025

Independent review of Cadia Valley Operations water monitoring

The EPA has commenced its independent review of the site's groundwater, surface water and aquatic ecosystem monitoring programs and data.

Why is this review being conducted?

During the recent five-year statutory review of Cadia Valley Operations’ Environment Protection Licence, the EPA identified water monitoring as a key priority. While interim changes have already been made to the licence to strengthen water-related conditions, the EPA is undertaking this independent review to further improve monitoring practices and minimise potential impacts on the surrounding environment and community.

Who is conducting the review?

Hydrobiology QLD Pty Ltd has been engaged as an independent environmental consultancy, to carry out the review. Their assessment will ensure that water monitoring at Cadia Valley Operations meets best practices and aligns with national guidelines.

What will the review cover?

The review will focus on:

  • Assessing whether the current monitoring programs effectively detect and measure potential impacts on local waterways.
  • Evaluating the programs against established environmental guidelines, such as the Australian and New Zealand Guidelines for Fresh and Marine Water Quality (ANZG, 2018).
  • Identifying any potential impacts on water quality and aquatic ecosystems, including effects on livestock water sources and irrigation.
  • Considering the geological characteristics of the Cadia Valley area and how they may naturally influence water quality.
  • Conducting a detailed statistical analysis of past and current water quality data to identify trends, patterns and any gaps in knowledge.
  • Recommending improvements to enhance monitoring programs.
What happens next?

The findings from this review will be compiled into a publicly available report, expected to be released in Q3 2025. The report will help guide any necessary updates to the monitoring programs to ensure continued protection of the environment and local communities.

August 2023

Regular vent emission monitoring 

Cadia continues to undertake vent emission monitoring regularly and provide a monthly report on dust discharges from one of its main vents. Results for fortnightly sampling of metals in vent stack emissions are provided to the EPA. The EPA continues to receive and review these reports.

Independent health risk analysis 

The EPA required Cadia to provide an independent health risk analysis in the form of a human health impact assessment to the EPA. Cadia sought peer-review and made the report available on the Cadia website.

We reviewed the Air Quality Impact Assessment, which is a key input to the human health impact assessment, and identified a range of issues. The EPA then required the Air Quality Impact Assessment to be revised and resubmitted. The revised Air Quality Impact Assessment is currently being considered by the EPA.

Tailings dam dust mitigation

We required Cadia to provide a report on all reasonable and feasible dust mitigation options to manage the risk of dust from the tailings dam and conduct sampling. Following the completion of this report Cadia has implemented irrigation of the northern tailings dam to supplement the pre-existing dust controls.

Cadia’s licence requires a monthly tailings dust management report to the EPA.

July 2023

The EPA required Cadia to undertake dust emissions monitoring on Ventilation Rise 8 every fortnight and is receiving fortnightly reports on dust monitoring as required under the licence conditions. 

All reports are reviewed and assessed for compliance against the Protection of the Environment Operations (Clean Air) Regulation 2002 emission limits.

June 2023

On 21 June 2023, the EPA said Cadia must comply immediately with the Protection of the Environment (Clean Air) Regulation 2022 (the Clean Air Regulation), the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997, and its Environment Protection Licence (EPL), or face further regulatory action by the EPA.

This followed test results showing the mine’s main vent was releasing an unacceptable level of dust.

Several new conditions were added to the licence to address community and environmental concerns about impacts on air quality. The new conditions require Cadia to do the following:

  • Undertake vent emission monitoring regularly and provide a monthly report on dust discharge from one of its main vents.
  • Provide additional reports on lead dust fingerprinting research, analysis of dust impacts and sources, an independent health risk analysis, and an updated Air Quality Impact Assessment.
  • Undertake works to manage dust generation underground, in addition to conditions issued in April to manage the risk of dust from the tailings dam.
  • Provide monthly reports on works undertaken in relation to the dust suppression plan for the tailings dam that Cadia has implemented under the conditions issued in April 2023.

Read a copy of the letter sent to Cadia and the media release issued 21 June 2023 for more information.

Cadia responded with initial actions including adjusting their underground operations in order to be compliant. Cadia has also taken a number of actions in addition to lowering dust production levels including

  • installing additional dust sprays and spray curtains
  • re-configuring the dust extraction systems
  • sampling of the vent rise emissions as required by the latest variation to the mine’s licence
  • installing additional dust sampling instrumentation
  • accelerated additional dust filtration units currently on order 

Read the media release issued 30 June for more information.

May 2023

On 29 May 2023 the EPA issued Cadia mine with a final pollution Prevention Notice regarding the management of emissions of dust and other air pollutants. A draft licence variation was also issued on 19 May 2023 as part of a new investigation commenced by the EPA.

Read the media releases issued on 22 May 2023 and 29 May 2023 for more information.

 

Stay up to date

Keeping the local community and environment safe is our key priority and we are committed to keeping the community informed.

We held a community information session in Blayney on 5 September 2023 about our monitoring programs and ongoing regulation of the Cadia mine.

This follows drop-in sessions in Millthorpe on 23 May 2023 and 7 June 2023 to provide community members with an opportunity to meet with representatives from the EPA and NSW Health and discuss concerns about dust in the local area.

We are also keeping the community up to date by email. You can contact [email protected] to be added to our community mailing list to receive the latest information in relation to the EPA’s regulation of Cadia mine.

Reporting pollution

Reports from the community play an important role in monitoring dust impacts. Concerns regarding air quality or dust emissions can be reported to the EPA’s Environment Line on 131 555. All complaints made to the Environment Line are directed to EPA officers, who prioritise those areas of most concern to the community.

Cadia mine also operates a community hotline and community members can report their concerns directly to the mine 24 hours a day seven days a week on 1800 063 043.