Tue, 9 December 2025, 7:30PM:
Ausgold to detail Katanning gold project’s environmental strategy after hydrologist’s claims of ‘omissions’
by Claire Middleton, Great Southern Herald, part of the "West Australian" newspaper group.
An aerial view of the Katanning gold project site in Badgebup. Credit: Ausgold/Supplied/RegionalHUB
The company behind the proposal for a gold mine north-east of Katanning has shared its environmental strategy in a bid to ease concerns over its potential impact on the Badgebup site.
Troy Collie, Ausgold’s general manager planning, environment and approvals, said the company would also be publicising its mine closure strategy, promising to restore biodiverse vegetation and replace topsoil removed during the Katanning gold project’s 10-year mining operation.
He said Ausgold was surveying the proposed site to check on the wildlife, which opponents of the mine say includes Carnaby’s black cockatoos and red-tailed phascogales.
“We know these listed species occur in the Great Southern and the nearby region, and we are pleased that the Katanning gold project layout is able to minimise the amount of tree clearing, which reduces the potential effect it may have on native fauna habitat,” Mr Collie said.
“Our studies prove that ferals are the most recorded animals in the district.
“Controlling foxes and cats is one action where Ausgold will lend vital support, as these ferals do extensive damage to populations of these listed species.”
However, a consultant hydrologist who reviewed documents provided by Ausgold in advance of the Environmental Protection Authority’s seven-day public comment period has said they contain “omissions, assumptions and contradictions which are concerning”.
Katanning environmentalists, who have been campaigning on social media against the mine, have called for the EPA to carry out a full public assessment.
The public comment period ended on December 1.
An endangered Carnaby's black cockatoo. Credit: Robert McLean/Robert McLean
Lance Mudgway, a Wagin-based hydrologist with experience working for Landcare and the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, said he had reviewed the Ausgold paperwork.
“The time frame of seven days was very tight; there was a lot of material submitted, much of which was extremely repetitive,” he said.
“There seemed to be omissions, assumptions and contradictions which are concerning.
“Some of the conclusions drawn seem inconsistent with the data it has presented.
“The stormwater management plan used outdated terms to describe its design parameters, which meant that the design appears to be inadequate.
“It did not explain how they would manage the ponds they said would flood four times a year, and there is no mention of the evaporation pond design.
“Also, the treatment of the ‘surplus’ water described in the water balance of the KGP was not clear.”
Mr Mudgway said while Ausgold had said there would be spoil heaps of 50m-60m, the company had not talked in detail in the documents he reviewed about rehabilitating the land.
Mr Collie said he was sure Ausgold had covered all bases in its water management strategy.
“We are very confident in the measurements and our models,” he said.
“The EPA will now look at our submission; we are sure we can do any further work necessary to resolve key concerns.
“At this early stage of the State’s assessment, we expect to hear stakeholder and public concerns, and we will take them away and do more research and analysis to address them.
“We will shortly be putting the mine closure strategy on the Ausgold website.
“It is quite exciting what we can make of the site post-closure as, depending on the landform shape, we will restore land to grazing and create biodiverse vegetation with heath plants like banksia, grevillea and hakea for native animal foraging.
“Mining today is not a contaminating activity, as people may have envisioned, say, 50 years ago.
“Any mining we conduct will be rehabilitated and retained on privately owned land.
“We can reshape the mined landscape. We know it will be different than the present, but it can still have natural and/or economic and agricultural worth after its rehabilitation.”
Mr Mudgway said while mining was in progress, the water table could drop and affect adjacent woodland.
“The documents talk about the ‘precautionary principle’ but not how this is to be achieved so they should be held to it — make sure anything you do doesn’t have an impact, or don’t do it,” he said.
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Disclosure: I do not hold AUC (Ausgold) shares. My family lived in and around Katanning during my primary school days, and one of those properties we lived on was out at Badgebup where AUC's KGP (Katanning Gold Project) is located, and it was then and remains now, decent farmland and AUC have faced a few headwinds with their KGP, not least a number of the farmers who use the land that sits over the top of that gold being unwilling to sell their farms to AUC.
On 22nd October AUC released an "Additional Land Acquisition as Katanning Gold Project Advances" announcement which detailed a binding agreement under which it will acquire an additional parcel of freehold land which is required for the development of its 100%-owned Katanning Gold Project (‘KGP’). Ausgold are paying $3m to acquire approximately 240 hectares of freehold land that forms a material portion of the proposed development footprint for the KGP.
They said the land includes approximately 50 hectares of Ausgold’s Mining Licence ML70/210 plus a substantial additional buffer area around ML70/210 which will allow for the potential growth of the Dingo Resource and Reserve, outside of the current mining lease, beyond that which was included in the KGP mine plan in the DFS delivered in June this year.
Ausgold Executive Chairman John Dorward stated: “Securing this land is another key de-risking event for the development of the KGP. Land access issues, which have historically impaired the development of the Katanning Gold Project up to this point, are being removed and we can now get on with the unfinished business of determining the full potential of this emerging gold district.”
Source: Additional Land Acquisition as Katanning Gold Project Advances.PDF announcement by Ausgold [22-Oct-2025]
So, they have managed to buy some of the land they need, but NOT all of it, and they also have environmental issues that still clearly need to be addressed more comprehensively.
This one is in the wheatbelt of WA however I do see some similarities with Regis' (RRL's) McPhillamys Gold Project in rural mid-NSW that got blocked by Tanya Plibersek a couple of years ago with her reasons recently being "sealed" for the next 30 years, so not subject to any successful FOI requests during the next three decades. McPhillamys was not a pure environmental decision, but the decision to block RRL from building the planned McPhillamy's TSF where they had planned to build it did centre around that area being in the headwaters area (or catchment area) of the Belubula River that was important to at least one group of Australian indigenous people. That river is dammed further downstream near Carcoar, and the Carcoar Dam is used for various recreational uses. Many farmers also rely on the river for water downstream.
So, still water, and still environmental concerns, and that gold project (RRL's McPhillamys GP) was blocked after it has already received approvals from the relevant NSW State authorities and RRL thought they had every box ticked to proceed with the build.
Ausgold's KGPs has water table concerns plus wildlife conservation concerns as well.
There is a lot of gold around the world. It makes sense to mine it in some places, not so much in others. I'm personally not too bullish on Ausgold's KGP getting built any time soon. They should absolutely face strong scrutiny and have to demonstrate that they can build and operate the project with very minimal disruption to the surrounding environment and wildlife - and without endangering existing wildlife. If they can't prove that, they should NOT be allowed to proceed.
From an investor's POV, there are much better projects to back in far better locations, IMO.
12-Aug-2022: In today's Friday email from the ASX with their free broker reports, there was only one, on Ausgold (AUC) by Argonaut - see here: auc-argonaut-update-120822.pdf
It is dated Thursday 11th August, 2022 (i.e. yesterday) although the date in the file name is today (the date it was distributed). So it's very current. Argonaut have a "SPEC BUY" call and an 11 cents/share valuation for AUC.
AUC closed at $0.054 today - i.e. 5.4c/share, up +8% on their 5c/share close yesterday - which is the "current price" mentioned in Argonaut's report. The next best performer today in the gold sector was Resolute (RSG), which rose +1c (or +3.51%) to close at 29.5c/share, so I daresay this report from Argonaut had a fair bit to do with AUC being up +8% today.
Argonaut's Summary (at the bottom of page 7) says, "Katanning represents a long-lived, profitable gold project. There is room to improve upon the existing plan. We maintain our Spec Buy recommendation. "
Argonaut do disclose on page 8 that they acted as Lead Manager to the Placement to raise $16M for Ausgold in March 2022 and will receive fees commensurate with this service. I have mentioned before that these brokers who are bullish on these speculative pre-revenue companies have often placed clients into them (meaning they have allocated shares in the companies they are reviewing to their own clients, or advised their clients to purchase shares in these companies) during previous placements or during the IPO, and so their views on these companies' prospects should always be viewed in that light. I'm not saying they are wrong, or being dishonest. I am simply pointing out that they have reason to want the company to do well, so it would be unusual for them to be publishing anything too negative about these companies, and understandable for them to be highlighting the positives. Just something to keep in mind. I find these reports useful, but I would never rely solely on one of them, they would always just be a single source of information and I would want more than that before choosing to invest in a company like this.
Disclosure: I do not hold Ausgold shares. Too early stage for me. In other words, too speculative, with too much chance of permanent capital loss.