“It would have been an absolute cracker of a producer”: Regis’ Jim Beyer on McPhillamys

Regis Resources managing director and chief executive Jim Beyer spoke about the future of its McPhillamys mine at the WA Mining Club September luncheon.

The NSW gold project was expected to be a valuable asset for the company, featuring a 7mtpa plant with 189moz of contained gold and an expected mine life of over 10 years.

“This would have been an absolute cracker of a producer, producing 187,000oz per year on average and ramping up to 235,000oz,” Mr Beyer said.

“That’s where we were heading – then we had a section 10 declaration over the project.

“[Federal Environment and Water Minister] Tanya Plibersek made a Section 10 declaration over the tailings dam, which had been approved at State and Federal level.

“It was a viable project and we were getting ready to head to there.

“This means McPhillamys is now non-viable as there’s nowhere else to put the tails.

Minister Plibersek made a partial declaration under Section 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection (ATSIHP) Act 1984 to protect a significant Aboriginal heritage site near Blayney, in central west NSW, from being destroyed to build a tailings dam for the gold project.

According to Mr Beyer it could take anywhere between 5-10 years to find a new safe and viable location for a tailings dam.

“As a result of this decision, we wrote off $193m from our books,” he said.

“While it’s not everything we would’ve spent on it, the money is just sitting there waiting for us to figure out what to do with it.”

The original application for the tailings dam was made in 2019 and according to Mr Beyer, Minister Plibersek found an area of cultural significance right underneath the tailings dam.

“At the moment it isn’t clear and Minister Plibersek has noted these areas are culturally sensitive and she hasn’t provided any details,” he said.

“We’re still waiting on what’s called a statement of reason which will hopefully give us some insights into what led her to make that decision.”

Mr Beyer walked through the application process and the reasons Minister Plibersek’s decision came as a shock to the company.

“The original application was put through in mid-2019 and we worked our way through State [NSW] approvals, which included heritage assessment, and we also worked our way through relevant Federal requirements,” he said.

“The approvals process continued through to 2022 with assessments, surveys, queries, permitting and approvals from various departments undertaken.

“All of this led to the Planning Department in NSW which determines if there’s a project which can be approved.

“It then went to a public hearing where anyone could show support or raise objections.

“It was quite clear there was a difference in opinion from one particular group relative to the Orange Land Council who is the legal representative body for that area.

“The Orange Lands Council said ‘we don’t support the project, we don’t support anything that impacts on our land whether it be farming, mining or anything like that’ and we [Regis] support that.

“But they went on to say, ‘however, we do recognise that mining brings significant benefits and it brings us opportunity so we don’t object to it’.

“The Orange Land Council also made commentary, which is on public record, that the group which had raised these issues did not agree that there were any areas of significant heritage value there.

“While there was no disputing there were some issues, the Orange Land Council said they were happy for the issues to be managed, which we were working on.”

Mr Beyer went on to add that the NSW State Independent Commissioners considered all this information and a few months later Regis received approval saying the environment, social and traditional owner and cultural heritage factors had been considered and McPhillamys “can be approved and is clear to go ahead”.

“This then went to the department that manages the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 which also considered the same factors and six weeks later we got the tick of approval.

As far as Regis was concerned, it had all the approvals for McPhillamys at that point in time.

“Based on the decisions that had been made, we felt that it was pretty clear it would be approved and we weren’t expecting the answer that we got,” Mr Beyer said.

“It was a surprise because it was considered by both the relevant NSW State and Federal departments and an answer had come back saying it was clear.”

Currently, Regis’ options are limited as to what it can do.

“We have two options,” Mr Beyer said.

“Firstly, we’re working on our legal options and, secondly, we’re looking to see if we can find another location, but that’s going to take time.”