Accounting for water in the minerals industry: Capitalising on regulatory reporting

Abstract

Australia has been rapidly advancing the field of water accounting as a tool to improve water management across the country. Water accounting is the application of a consistent and structured approach to identify, measure and report water resource information. The Bureau of Meteorology (the Bureau) has developed Australian Water Accounting Standards for General Purpose Water Accounting Reports.Following collaboration between the Bureau and the Newmarket Gold Mining Company, this paper investigates how General Purpose Water Account Reporting can be applied and used in the minerals industry to simplify and improve aspects of regulatory reporting. This case study demonstrates how General Purpose Water Accounting Reports and the lessons learned from the ongoing development of the Australian National Water Account can be practically applied to regulatory reporting and corporate data management for a mining operation in the Australian Northern Territory. This paper also demonstrates the benefits of aligning a standardised water account with data that is already routinely collected as part of mining operations environmental compliance.

Keywords

• General purpose water accounting
• National Water Account
• National Water Initiative
• Mine site regulatory reporting
• Sustainability reporting
• Water resource accounting