Community Information Session

On 20 and 21 March 2018, Stawell Gold Mines hosted a Community Information Session at 108 Main Street, Stawell. The session was an informal ‘drop-in’ format, aligned with the Company’s commitment to providing community-based engagement opportunities twice per calendar year, as outlined in the site Community Engagement Plan.

Stawell Gold Mines was pleased with the level of community participation in the event, with approximately 200 community members attending the session, 143 captured via the participant survey.

The key observations and common points of interest noted throughout the event included:

• A large number of community members observed correlation between the operation of the mine and local economic prosperity.
• Supporters were very keen to understand when the mine would return to employing a full complement of employees and recommence mining/production. Subsequently, employment enquiries followed.
• Common interest themes were Company’s position on the Big Hill Enhanced Development Project, regional exploration by SGM and others (i.e., Navarre Minerals), opportunity for participation in SGM’s Environment Review Committee; and future blasting activities.

The community information session utilised a new venue, new time of day and trialed a new participant survey methodology. Whilst previous participation rates have not been recorded, anecdotal observations suggest a positive outcome with significantly improved community participation rates and participant satisfaction.