Assignment
Golder Associates was engaged to complete the Definitive Feasibility Study and Environmental Impact Assessment for a uranium project in Western Australia. The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) set the level of assessment for the project to an Environmental Review and Management Programme (ERMP). An ERMP is the highest level of assessment in Western Australia.

Preparation of the ERMP included socio-economic impact assessment, environmental assessments and human health and ecological risk assessment. These assessments included determining the impacts of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions resulting from project activities and an associated GHG management plan.

The EPA's environmental objective for GHG emissions management is to reduce emissions to a level which is as low as is practicable to ensure potential GHG emissions from proposed projects are adequately addressed in the planning, design and operation stages.

Our Role
Golder developed the GHG management plan for the Project in accordance with the requirements of the EPA's Guidance Statement 12: Minimising Greenhouse Gases.

This included:

• Inventory of estimated GHG emissions
• Energy sources and estimated consumption
• Summary of the GHG emissions for different power supply and processing options
• Comparison against state and national GHG and energy consumption figures
• Industry benchmarks against other uranium projects
• Measures to minimise GHG emissions
• Measures to reduce energy consumption and improve energy efficiency
• Options for carbon sequestration and offsetting
• Energy and carbon management procedures.

The GHG management plan identified the key applications that mitigate GHG emissions and improve energy use in order to reduce the associated environmental impacts. This included recommendations for: leading practice energy and carbon management; comprehensive analysis to identify and implement appropriate offsets; and ongoing GHG emissions monitoring and reporting.