Out of the CEO’s office – June

New Councillor – Russell White has been elected unopposed filling the vacancy for the Perenjori Ward.  Russell will be officially sworn in at the Council meeting on the 20th June 2018.  We welcome Russell to Council and look forward to working with him to continue improving the town for the benefit of all.

Corporate Business Plan – Council has adopted the Plan for 2017 to 2021.  This is available here as well as in hard copy from the Administration office.

Western Power – Street lighting  – Western Power have been working in Perenjori replacing lights.  If any residents notice lights not working these can be reported directly to Western Power @ https://westernpower.com.au/power-outages/report-a-faulty-streetlight/ Recent outages were experienced over the weekend of the 9th and 10th June with a response from Western Power below: June 10th

Issue on the network 32 customers affected (1 km south of town) 2pm on the 10th, lasting 3 hours In the process of isolating and repairing the fault the power went on and off a few times.

June 9th

Equipment failure (pole top switch) 20 customers affected (15-20km east of town) 9am on the 5th. Lasting 2 hours.

Power matters – CEO met with a representative from Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development to further discussions on renewable power options.  Amy Tait – Manager of the Energy Futures Team provided information about Albany and a Hackathon which took place to explore options to address reliable power issues.  Details are attached.  The CEO is communicating with representatives from Western Power and the City of Albany to seek further information and to investigate a similar opportunity for Perenjori.

Fixed Wireless Network – Council has provided support for a Node1 submission to the Digital Farms grant – This is to provide a Fixed Wireless network to the North Midlands specifically aimed at providing metro grade, affordable internet access to farming businesses. The grant would come through Commonwealth funding and is a continuation of our Shire’s and other North Midlands Shires efforts to provide a more affordable, reliable, fast and sustainable internet service.

Mount Gibson – The following are notes from a recent presentation attended by the CEO and Deputy Shire President – Cr Peter Waterhouse. Project update and environmental discussion

Ceasing mining first week in November Rehabilitating waste sites Haven’t mined as much as originally thought 4mtpa, 11000 tons per day 70 employees, 104 Contractor’s will be affected by the closure of the mine Still operating 3 trains, carrying 4000 tons Anything below 56 percent not viable to sell Iron Hill will be 6.05 Mt Finish processing in new year Finish road hauling in Jan 2019 Last ship late Jan Magnetite, needs significant processing, only at 30% need to extract ore for higher quality Rail siding, leave as is, eventually need to rehabilitate Asia iron have asked for bores Asia iron retain some roads, they then take responsibility

Budget 2018/19 – Discussions are continuing with Council to prepare for the coming budget.  The budget will be based on the Community Strategic Plan, Corporate Business Plan and Long Term Financial Plan.  If there are any special requests for the community please contact myself or you elected member representative.  Council will be aiming to adopt the budget in June/July 2018.

Pavilion Re-Development – This project is progressing well, on time and on budget. A more detailed report will follow in the next Bush Telegraph.

WALGA State Convention – This will be in Perth from 1st August til the 3rd August.  Council usually have a group of Councillors and the CEO who attend.  A request has been made to meet with Minister representatives from:

Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development – Reliable Power Department Local Government – enquiry time frames, impacts, local government act review, Department of tourism – Regional Events Scheme Funding Department Environment and Regulation – timeframes for clearing permits

Appointments are also made with relevant stakeholders including Mining companies and Government Department representatives This provides an opportunity for the President and CEO to meet with representatives and raise issues.

Draft Public Art Policy – As per previous discussions with Council a draft Public Art Policy has been presented for consideration.  The policy will provide some guidelines and a process for Council to consider public art projects which may impact on the general amenity of the town and shire in general.  Interested community members can obtain the policy from the administration office through the Executive Assistant, [email protected]

Community Engagement Policy – This will also provide guidance to staff and Council on the various methods of engaging with our community.  This Community Engagement Policy is a formal expression of Council’s commitment to engaging the Perenjori community through the use of appropriate, effective and inclusive practices.

The following diagram provides a flow chart of the process:

Egan Street Resources – communications are continuing with Egan Street and particularly any opportunities for the community. 

The following is a brief update from Marc Ducler – CEO:

 At this stage we are finalising our Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) with a target release of late June – although this may slip into the first two weeks of July. We are very confident that the study will demonstrate a financially robust project with at least a 5 year life of mine. It appears that the total workforce will approximate 130 people, excluding exploration (this is likely to add another 10 – 20 people depending on how many exploration rigs are being utilised). We would expect following the completion of the DFS to enter into a financing stage with a target close by the end of the September Quarter. This will involve Egan Street getting approval for approximately $30m of debt, combined with the current $12m in cash that we have in the bank to start construction.

During the September quarter work would also commence on detailed engineering and procurement of long lead items. Camp, office and workshop facilities would be expected to commence during quarter 4 – following the appropriate approvals. Mine rehabilitation and process plant construction would be expected to commence during the end of the 1st quarter 2019 with commissioning and first gold production from October 2019. With regards to the concept of a Perenjori based laboratory – these will be considered as part of the detailed engineering stage (July – Sept of this year). This would be contemplated as a contracted remote laboratory by one of the commercial laboratories that are currently based in Perth.

Drilling again by 22 June, so we will mobilise our exploration team back to Perenjori the week commencing 18 June.