Over recent months, our mining operations and blast vibrations have been impacting on our neighbours more than we would like. If this includes you, we apologise for this impact to you in your home. We want to assure you that Ballarat Gold Mine is working consciously to rectify disturbances going forward.
Our licence conditions state that the vibration limit for blasting is 10 mm/sec and that 95% of all blasts must be below 5 mm/sec. We have recently raised an internal incident report to ensure we investigate and then address additional corrective actions.
Vibration attenuation varies considerably throughout the mine, with much larger blasts than that which occurred recently having no impact on vibration at surface. We commit to continually and proactively reviewing our practices to minimise neighbour disruption such as yours in the future. We will be engaging a blasting expert to assist us to minimise blast vibrations from specific areas within the underground mine that are having a greater impact on the community.