The Butcherbird Manganese Project  is located in the Shire of Meekatharra within the Gascoyne region of Western Australia.  It is situated approximately 115 km south of Newman and 30 km North of Kumarina. The project consists of open pit mining, crushing and screening and a processing plant for the production of a high-quality manganese (MnO₂) lump product for sale and export.

MBS Environmental have been the lead consultant for the project’s environmental approvals process and have been involved through all stages of the project including delivery of the Mining Proposal, Mine Closure Plan, Works Approval and Licence under Part V of the Environmental Protection Act 1986, MBS also provide ongoing environmental support by means of monthly site visits including groundwater monitoring and data collection.

Butcherbird Manganese Support:

• Strategic advice
• Scoping and Management of Baseline Studies
• Conducting soil and landform, waste rock and tailings characterisation, stygofauna surveys and surface water assessments.
• Native Vegetation Clearing Permits
• Mining Proposals
• Mine Closure Plans
• Works Approval
• Environmental Licensing
• Compliance Reporting
• Environmental Management Plans
• Ongoing site environmental monitoring support

MBS Environmental (MBS) was commissioned in 2023 to undertake routine environmental monitoring and reporting stipulated by existing approvals, to ensure ongoing environmental compliance. Environmental work carried out by MBS Included:

Environmental Monitoring

• Annual/ad hoc environmental inspections to support reporting obligations.
• Discharge and abstraction rates, standing water levels, in-field and laboratory chemical analysis for production bores, monitoring bores and TSF bores.
• Sampling and laboratory analysis of process pond water.

Provision of documents and data required to complete monitoring

• Spatial data for all monitoring points, including access tracks to offsite bores.
• Field monitoring sheets.
• Monitoring Program Overview.
• Groundwater Monitoring Procedure.

Maintenance of the water monitoring database

• Data entry undertaken following the receival of scanned copies of monitoring field sheets and laboratory analysis results.
• Provide advice and observations where appropriate (e.g. data appears potentially erroneous, or general method/sampling queries)

Advise on upcoming routine monitoring requirements and procedures (e.g. storage, holding times, transport, and documents required for laboratory analyses).

Annual monitoring commitments to DEMIRS.