About this Manual

The purpose of all emission estimation technique (EET) manuals in this series is to assist Australian manufacturing, industrial, and service facilities to report emissions of listed substances to the National Pollutant Inventory (NPI). This manual describes the procedures and recommended approaches for estimating emissions from facilities engaged in gold ore processing.

The scope of this document is to outline methods that can be used by the gold ore processing industry to:

• identify which substances they are required to report as part of the National Pollutant Inventory (NPI); and
• estimate emissions of NPI substances to air, water and land from their facilities.

This manual covers the processing of gold ore commencing from the delivery of raw ore to the mills, to the production of mine bars (or gold doré).

The emission of NPI substances from tailings storage facilities (TSFs), waste management sites and sewerage systems from a processing facility are included in the reporting requirements of the NPI system, and are covered by this manual.

EET MANUAL: Gold ore processing

HANDBOOK: Basic non-ferrous metal manufacturing

ANZSIC CODE : 2729

First published in June 1999
Version 2.0 - December 2006
National Pollutant Inventory
Department of the Environment and Heritage

Emission estimation techniques used in the manuals

Estimates of emissions of NPI-listed substances to air, water and land should be reported for each substance that triggers a threshold. The reporting list and detailed information on thresholds are contained in the NPI Guide. In general, there are four types of emission estimation technique (EET) that may be used to estimate emissions from a facility.

The four types described in the NPI Guide are:

• sampling or direct measurement
• mass balance
• fuel analysis or other engineering calculations
• emission factors