Perched on the edge of the Lone Pine Reservoir stands the Macraes Flat Trout hatchery, one of only two of its kind in New Zealand. Here, between 5,000 and 8,000 rainbow trout are reared annually to be released in ‘put-and-take’ fisheries around Otago for local licensed anglers to catch. The unique setup, located on the edge of the footprint of the active mine site, is jointly operated by the OceanaGold Macraes Operation and Fish & Game Otago.  

Like many innovation projects born out of the Macraes Operation, the partnership started out as just an idea. At the time, conservation organisation Fish & Game New Zealand were closing the Bullock Creek hatchery in Wanaka around 221km away from the mine site. Avid fisherman and Processing Operator Greg Caldwell saw an opportunity to bring the hatchery to Macraes and suggested the Lone Pine Reservoir would make for a great new home, utilising the water pumped from the Taieri River to benefit the community before it joined the processing cycle to produce gold.  

Together, with in-kind help from several local contractors, Fish & Game Otago and the OceanaGold Macraes Operation built the hatchery in 2004. This saw Fish & Game responsible for providing the hatchery equipment, stocking the hatchery and releasing the fish, while OceanaGold provided the building and water and managed care of day-to-day operations, including monitoring the water temperature and flow from the Control Room of the Processing Plant.  

The secret to the hatchery’s success is the natural cyclical replenishment of the trout. Fertilised eggs are incubated before hatching into fry and maturing to a size where they can be released. Fertile rainbow trout habitually return to the water race adjacent to the hatchery from the nearby Lone Pine Reservoir when the water reaches a tropical 8 degrees Celsius. Here Fish & Game collect the eggs and sperm from the fish before they are released back into the reservoir and the cycle begins again.  

Since its commissioning the hatchery has continued to populate dams and reservoirs across Otago with rainbow trout. These waters are chosen as they have no natural spawning or recruitment areas but are important angling destinations, so they rely on the hatchery for fish.  

The OceanaGold Macraes Operation General Manager Mike Fischer said the benefits of the hatchery are realised for both the wider and local community, making the partnership even better.  

“We keep some of the trout to populate the Macraes Lone Pine Reservoir as well, so this allows us to host community events like Take a Kid Fishing days where local kids have a chance to catch fish from the reservoir with their family,” Mr Fischer said.  

From an initial capital expenditure of NZ$60,000 nearly 20-years ago, the hatchery partnership with Fish & Game continues to demonstrate how we create shared value with our stakeholders to benefit our communities.  

Today, I am proud to share our new Company Vision, Values, and Success Ingredients – together with our Purpose, known collectively as The OceanaGold Way – that will drive our business forward.

In developing the renewed Vision and Values and introducing Success Ingredients – or behaviours – I engaged widely and opened up the discussion to representatives across our workforce. What emerged from these discussions were insightful foundations for success, an incredibly valuable learning opportunity for me and a great illustration of the benefit of one of the Values, being Teamwork. The final product I share with you now reflects and represents the collective perspectives of our people – and I am proud to be part of the OceanaGold team who will bring The OceanaGold Way to life over the coming years.

Our Purpose is mining gold for a better future.

Our Vision is to be a company people trust, want to work and partner with, supply and invest in, to create value.

Our Values are Care, Respect, Integrity, Performance and Teamwork.

I wanted to share my thoughts on these Values, which are the most fundamental element of The OceanaGold Way:

	Care | we care for the safety, health and well-being of our people, the environment and local communities I believe care is the most important of our Values. If we genuinely care about the safety and wellbeing of people, the communities in which we operate and the environment, then every decision we make and action we take becomes easier. Any perceived success in other aspects of our business will be overshadowed if we do not exhibit this value of Care.
	Respect | we respect and listen to each other, embracing different views and diversity in all its forms This is about listening and embracing diversity, embracing new ways of thinking and learning from our colleagues and partners across the world. Respect is the basis of creating trust and the platform to identify and realise opportunities.
	Integrity | we do the right thing and take accountability to deliver on our commitments At the most basic level, integrity is about doing the right thing and what we promise to do, taking accountability for our commitments, even when no one is watching.
	Performance | we strive for excellence through learning, continuous improvement and innovating We are operationally disciplined, striving for excellence and viewing every experience as an opportunity to learn and grow. Excellence is very much about the journey as well as the destination. We improve through our focus on learning and innovation.
	Teamwork | we achieve great outcomes by everyone contributing and working together  We achieve better outcomes when everyone contributes and works together. There are few roles that can thrive alone, and we encourage collaboration, coaching and celebrating our achievements.

The Vision and Values are supported by the following ‘Success Ingredients’, which are six behaviours we will apply every day to ensure we realise our Vision and be a great place to work.

We will succeed when we:

• are open and trusting, communicating and sharing knowledge
• are inspired and aligned by shared goals
• think like business owners to safely and responsibly maximise production, reduce cost and increase returns
• speak up, contribute and take action
• are operationally disciplined and do the basic things well
• motivate, coach and celebrate people’s contributions and achievement.

Our growth plans for 2023 and beyond are ambitious. With the strong foundations in place in this new OceanaGold Way, the Company is in a good position to realise its full potential.

I look forward to our next chapter of growth together and us all giving life to the new Vision, Values and Success Ingredients every day.

Gerard Bond
President and CEO

The OceanaGold chapter in the mine’s story began in 1990. Thirty-two years later, the company’s operations have expanded to the North Island’s Waihi, the Philippines, and South Carolina in the US.

Macraes is New Zealand’s largest active gold mine, both on the surface and underground. Since OceanaGold’s involvement, the mine has produced more than five million ounces of gold, employed more than 3,000 people and contributed a vital $8.5 billion to the New Zealand economy.

Macraes General Manager Mike Fischer says OceanaGold is a modern miner planning for the future.

“We are proudly ingrained in the Otago region’s past and present,’’ Mr Fischer says. “But there are challenges ahead and we are preparing for them.

“We are actively working towards our target of a 30% reduction in Carbon emissions by 2030, and net zero carbon emissions by 2050 in line with New Zealand Government targets.’’

Macraes’ electricity is now generated from 100 per cent renewable sources and the operation is actively working towards decarbonising its fleet as a key part of the OceanaGold strategy to net zero.
“We have a clear action plan to help reach our 2030 goal,’’ Mr Fischer says.

“The company has developed an emissions reduction strategy to provide a pathway to maintain focus and build capability in emissions management across the organisation – with a focus on three of these areas, decarbonisation of mobile equipment, increased use of renewable energy, and energy use/energy efficiency improvements.”

OceanaGold has partnered with the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) in a technology demonstration partnership. Macraes Operation will commission an electric hydraulic excavator in early 2023 and will be the first operation in New Zealand to own and operate one of these machines. The benefits of the ‘electric shovel’ include operational cost reduction and a reduction in carbon emissions.

The mine is also investigating renewable energy as a potential post-mining land use. The company is in the advanced stages of preparing a feasibility study for a solar farm to supply electricity to the operation during daylight hours.

“We are also working with our diverse communities as extractive operations expand, and we continue to attract, train and retain a skilled specialist workforce in a competitive global market,” Mr Fischer says.

“We are committed to the future. A future that will continue to provide jobs, ongoing partnerships, local regional and national investment, technological innovation, and environmental sustainability.

“We are currently mining both on the surface and underground. In 2023, open pit ore will continue to be sourced from Deepdell, and waste stripping will commence in earnest at Innes Mills. We expect to have the first stope ore from Golden Point Underground in early 2023 and this will be fully ramped up to replace Frasers Underground by late 2023.”

Watch the video here:

Or, you could climb the 1,103 steps and 51 flights of stairs to the top of the tower with 25 kilogrammes of kit on your back and breathing recycled air through a BG4 closed-circuit breathing set with a mask covering your face.

That is just what members of Waihi Operation’s Mines Rescue Team and the Macraes Emergency Response Team did in August, joining more than 900 firefighters from around the country to raise over NZ$1.3 million for Leukaemia and Blood Cancer New Zealand.

The event is held each year, with team members raising money from sponsors and fundraising activities before the event.

This year the Mines Rescue Team from Waihi took first place for teams of six to nine firefighters, raising just over NZ$35,000 in sponsorship. The team from Macraes gained second place in the 10-plus team members category, having raised NZ$30,001 making OceanaGold employees one of the biggest contributors to the event. This result is reflection of the huge amount of their time over the past months to raise money and train for the event on top of their own jobs, lives and other volunteering commitments.

The fastest climbers can complete the event in around ten minutes. Shay Perkinson from the Waihi team says it’s not about the time.

“To be in Mines Rescue you have to be fit, and while we will always challenge each other to do our best, for us it’s not about being fastest, it’s about getting the team to the top, and raising money for a really worthwhile cause,” Shay said.

“Everybody knows somebody, or knows somebody who knows somebody, who has cancer. This is our chance to give back.”

Jed Moriarty, one of the fastest climbers, agrees. He says the team is “standing on the shoulders of the community”.

“We can train and do the climb on the day, but we succeed because the community gets behind us,” Jed said.

“We have a small group of major sponsors who are always incredibly generous, but a lot of the funds raised come in small amounts from our communities in Waihi and at Macraes. We really couldn’t do this without them behind us.”

OceanaGold’s Waihi Operation Acting General Manager Justin Johns attended his first Sky Tower Challenge this year.

“I’m impressed by the teamwork and commitment for the cause; it’s an amazing fundraising event helping others. We should all be very proud of what the Waihi team and our teammates from the South Island have achieved,” Justin said.

General Manager at the Macraes Operation, Mike Fischer says the event is very physically demanding.

“These results showcase to all of us the strength and resilience our rescue teams require to respond to emergencies both on site and in the wider community,” Mike said.

Both managers praised the commitment and generosity of sponsors and supporters.

Two new funds aimed at building community capacity and resilience have been added to the Didipio Mine’s substantial community program in line with new terms and conditions agreed to as part of the Financial or Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) renewal.

The Community Development Fund and the Provincial Development Fund are resourced through an additional 1.5 per cent of the mine’s gross mining revenue to deliver programs that meet the needs of the region and its people. The CDF was launched in July, 2022 in collaboration with the mine’s regulator, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau.

Didipio Mine’s External Affairs and Social Performance Manager Marjorie Idio said the team was excited about the opportunity to be a catalyst for significant positive social change in the region.

“In funding programs outside the host and neighbouring communities, our strategy is to connect multiple agencies and expand our social footprint to communities in the greater Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino area,” Ms Idio said.

“While we have been deeply involved with our two host provinces over many years through the delivery of our Social Development Management Plan, the Community Development Fund allow us to share the benefits of the Didipio Mine outside our immediate community.

“We hope similar companies can replicate the program in the future, further expanding the social impact and building more resilience across the region.”

The Funds will be administered through a grant program. Project proposals developed by local organisations will need to align with the mine’s seven pillars of benefit-sharing:

1. Infrastructure
2. Enterprise Development
3. Socio-cultural or IP Program
4. Capacity Building
5. Disaster Response/Management and Environment
6. Health
7. Education.

New projects focusing on the infrastructure needs of the region will commence in Q4, 2022.

Each project will receive up to ₱3 Million to provide farm-to-market networks and connections to evacuation centres. However, there will be a strong focus on building capabilities of project proponents to craft complete project proposals – not just one-off construction projects – a skill they can use for future improvement initiatives.

Project Sponsor, Joan Adaci-Cattiling, said the goal of the Community Development Fund was to set up the basis for a self-reliant and resilient community.

“The greatest contribution we can make is the legacy we will leave behind. It’s all about purposeful giving,” Ms Adaci-Cattiling said.

About the Funds

The Community Development Fund is delivered in collaboration and partnership with relevant local government units, community groups, organisations, Indigenous peoples, or Indigenous cultural communities to determine its plan and implementation. Importantly, there is a huge emphasis on widespread participation among multiple community stakeholders to deliver programs that have broad benefits and purpose, and to build effective partnerships to foster learning and continuous improvement.

The Provincial Development Fund prioritises improvements that are meaningful, substantial, and lasting. To achieve this, the Didipio Mine team consults the provincial local government units of Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino to ensure the projects and activities funded by the PDF align with their respective provincial development plans and meet the community’s needs.

The publishing of the SEIS has been heralded as an important step in the future of OceanaGold’s Haile Gold Mine.

Now in a 30-day public comment period, the SEIS will undergo a 15-day review period before the final Record of Decision (ROD) is scheduled to be issued.

The ROD and related permits are required to commence development of the Haile underground mine and to expand the operating footprint to allow for additional potentially-acid-generating waste containment facilities, overburden facilities and expanded tailings storage facility.

The proposed expansion includes:

• Development of the Horseshoe Underground (HUG)
• Optimising mill operations to increase capacity from 9,100 tonnes per day to 14,400 tonnes per day
• Expanding the permitted boundary from 4,552 to 5,384 acres
• Increasing Tailings Storage Facility (TSF) capacity from 40 million tonnes to 72 million tonnes
• Increasing Potentially Acid Generating (PAG) storage from 100.1 million tonnes to 150.1 million tonnes
• Increasing overburden storage areas (OSA) from 147.5 million tonnes to approximately 207 million tonnes
• Expanding the average capacity of the Water Treatment Plant (WTP) from 1,200 gallons per minute to 2,400 gallons per minute.

Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Americas, David Londono, said publication of the SEIS was a significant milestone for the Company and the community that hosts the Haile Gold Mine.

“Development of the SEIS commenced in 2018 and contained information about the geology, water resources, soils, wetlands, socioeconomics, public health and safety, cultural resources, and other impacts as it relates to proposed expansion,” Mr Londono said.

“We are thrilled to now be moving to the next stage in the permitting process to secure the future of the mine by moving our operations underground and extending its life to 2034.”

Mr Londono said pending approvals, the expanded mine would deliver many local benefits that extended across the supply chain and included direct employment with the mine.

“To deliver the expansion and associated infrastructure, we expect to employ approximately 200 additional people, and we hope the majority of those jobs can be created for people living in Kershaw and the broader Lancaster County.

“It’s been a long time coming, but the SEIS is well considered, and we anticipate it moving forward as it has been published.“Soon we will see the long-term benefits of having a global miner in our region – and that’s something we should be excited about.”

At the forefront of this work is Megan Williams, the Environmental Advisor who supports the restoration project to ensure it is on track.

“The ultimate goal is to leave a site that we have restored as best as we can with the most up to date technology”, says Williams. “I want the work here to reflect that we didn’t take any shortcuts and that OceanaGold takes the environmental side of gold mining seriously”.

To date more than 800,000 trees have been planted on the site comprising silver beach, mountain beach, red beach and Manuka.

The establishment of a clean and functioning wetland has been a highlight of the project to date, as not only flora and fauna have thrived but so too have native wildlife.

“The wetland plants have done better than we originally thought and in a shorter time frame”, explains Williams. “It’s been amazing to see the return of native species to make this their home”.

The project is shaping significant progress and earlier this year public consultation began on how best for the area to be used moving forward where it will be returned to public ownership through the Department of Conservation.

“Long after OceanaGold leaves the site I believe people will be surprised to think that a gold mine was ever here” states Williams.