Southsea Gold Sdn Bhd owns CL.105651438 which is earmarked for economic mineral mining by the Sabah State Government. The area was previously part of Mount Wullersdorf and Ulu Kalumpang Forest Reserves under the purview of Sabah Forestry Department before it was alienated under Section 57 of the Land Ordinance Cap 68 and Section 16 of the Mining Ordinance No. 22 of 1960 for the purpose of mining on 9th January 2015. Phase 1 (Mantri Block) covers an area of 475 Ha of the total 946.1 Ha. The expected total tonnage of ore in Mantri Block mineral deposit is about 1.45 million tonnes with gold content of 4.03 tonnes, 12.07 tonnes of silver and 3,279 tonnes of copper.

Mantri Block development consist of four (4) main areas - open pit mine; gold processing plant; mine tailing retention pond and overburden ad mine amenities and infrastructures. Approximately 280 ha of the total 475 ha land area has been designated as buffer area to the surrounding land use especially towards the remaining Ulu Kalumpang and Mount Wullersdorf Forest Reserves. The mining operation involves a few stages of activities to extract gold and other associated minerals, i.e. silver and copper, commencing from overburden stripping, paydirt extraction, haulage and transportation to the processing plant and gold beneficiation. Knelson concentration, floatation and other processing equipment shall be installed at the processing area for the purpose of gold beneficiation which shall be carried out in a close circuit system. The proposed gold beneficiation process will only be up to the ore concentration stage. The processed ore will be exported overseas via 20 MT containers, most likely to China to extract its gold and associated minerals, i.e. silver and copper.

Mineral mining of an area more than 20 Ha which may affect the landscape and requires rehabilitation upon cessation of the mining activities is a prescribed activity under the State of Sabah’s Environment Protection (Prescribed Activities) (Environmental Impact Assessment) Order 2005. This specific project falls under the Special EIA category due to its scale and location sensitivity which is adjacent to forest reserves (Mount Wullersdorf and Ulu Kalumpang Forest Reserve – Class I: Protection Forest Reserves besides the nature of the mining activities itself which are typically associated with the production of Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) which can significantly impact the human and biological environment if not properly managed and controlled particularly at post-mining stage as well as the creation of tailing dam for storage of tailings which create safety hazards to downstream communities and ecosystem in case of dam failure.

As such, a Special EIA report on the impacts of the proposed Project on the environment is prepared for approval of the Environment Protection Department (EPD) Sabah. The objective of the EIA is to ensure that all impacts, direct and indirect, associated with the proposed Project is fully examined and addressed. The SEIA report was submitted to EPD Sabah in October 2016 for processing and subsequently approved in March 2017. 

Description of Actual Services Provided:

A multi-disciplined team of sector-specific specialists gathered data and conducted field studies on all aspects of the physical, biological and social environment, documenting the current situation and highlighting the core environmental issues related to the proposed Project. Key environmental issues that were identified and assessed are as listed below:

• Slope Stability
• Soil Erosion and Water Pollution
• Waste Generation and Management (Biomass, Construction Waste, Domestic Waste, Sewage, Overburden, Tailings, Scheduled Waste)
• Ecological Impact
• Dam Break
• Water Use and Quality (Hydrology, Water Quality, Groundwater)
• Potential Risk Hazards (Forest Fire, Tailing Dam Stability, Public Health Impact)
• Mine Closure/ Rehabilitation Plan
• Air Pollution
• Noise Pollution
• Ground Vibration and Flyrock
• Traffic and Transportation Impact
• Socio-Economics Impact
• Residual Impacts

The collation of these information and assessment then formed the basis for the formulation of the mitigation measures and monitoring programme proposed in the SEIA report.

Key Project Elements:

The key project elements included the following:

• A profile of the existing environmental condition within 5-km radius of the proposed site which focuses on the identification and mapping of the existing physical, biological and land use conditions in the immediate areas. This includes a review of the institutional and legal set-up and identification of the main issues, opportunities, and constraints.
• Terrestrial ecology (flora and fauna) surveys using line transect method to ascertain and identify presence of significant ecological species within the project area and surrounding vicinity.
• Dam break assessment which analyses and models for the hypothetical scenario of tailing dam breach and its impact on the downstream environment in terms of maximum elevation reached by the release water or tailings; affected areas and duration required to reach these areas using 1-D dam breach and 2-D flood routing model of FLO-2D software.
• Water use and quality assessment in terms of river water availability for Project’s water demand and environmental flow release as well as seepage water discharge from tailing dam  via QUAL2K water quality model.
• Tailing dam stability assessment during the following conditions: Steady state seepage; Static and Seismic (earthquake events) to determine the Factor of Safety (FOS) for the tailing dam design.
• Health impact assessment to describe the baseline health information of surrounding community, potential health concerns and its impacts to the community from the Project operations.
• Environmental air and noise study to assess these impacts to the surrounding land use including nearby communities and wildlife.
• Outlining the waste management strategy during project implementation (site preparation and operation stages) for the various wastes produced.