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Page 1 DM/DFB/ae(Mt Arthur Modification) Project No. G1602 January 2013 REPORT ON MT ARTHUR COAL OPEN CUT MODIFICATION GROUNDWATER IMPACT ASSESSMENT 1.0 INTRODUCTION Hunter Valley Energy Coal Pty Ltd (HVEC), a wholly owned subsidiary of BHP Billiton Ltd, is proposing to extend the currently approved open cut mine footprint at the Mt Arthur Coal Mine. As such, it is seeking approval for a modification to its approved Mt Arthur Consolidation Project from the Minister of Planning and Infrastructure, under section 75W of the New South Wales (NSW) Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979. HVEC has two current approvals for the Mt Arthur Coal Mine, these being: • PA09_0062 granted on 24 September 2010 for the Mt Arthur Coal Consolidation Project. This approval is for open cut mining and infrastructure and allows a mining rate of up to 32 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa); and • PA06_0091 granted on the 2 December 2008 for underground mining at the rate of 8 Mtpa. The Mt Arthur Coal Open Cut Modification (the Modification) includes the continuation of open cut mining operations at the Mt Arthur Coal Mine for an additional operational life of approximately four years (i.e. from Year 2022 to Year 2026). The Modification involves an expansion of the open cut disturbance area to the south-west, as shown on Figures 1 and 2. The Modification Area lies between the approved open cut mine and the approved underground mine (Figure 2). Australasian Groundwater and Environmental Consultants Pty Ltd (AGE) were commissioned by HVEC to undertake a groundwater impact assessment of the proposed Modification. This report, which describes the groundwater impact assessment, forms part of the Environmental Assessment (EA) being prepared by Resource Strategies Pty Ltd, in support of the application for approval of the Modification. The report describes the hydrogeological regime of the Site area and identifies potential risks and constraints. The assessment is based on a refined three-dimensional transient, groundwater flow model of the Mt Arthur Coal Mine that was originally developed in 2009 for the Mt Arthur Coal Consolidation Project EA and has been updated to include the Modification. In the context of this report, the term Site refers to the Mt Arthur Coal Mine Site and the term MAU is used to describe the Mt Arthur Underground Mine. The Model Area/Boundary refers to the extent of the numerical model footprint.