The Experienced Choice

Sorby Hills silver-lead-zinc Project

Karstic mining in the midst of the Ord River Irrigation Area

From a hydrogeological perspective, it’s hard to think of a more difficult feasibility challenge than to mine a deposit hosted deep within cavernous limestone in an area with an extreme monsoonal climate. However, the Sorby Hills lead-silver-zinc deposit, hosted in the karstic Sorby Dolomite  in the tropical Kimberly region of Western Australia is also located right in the middle of one of Australia’s largest planned irrigation projects, the Ord River Irrigation Area Stage 2 (ORIA). 

In 2021, Pennington Scott released an optimised pre-feasibility study that drew together decades of disparate water studies into a credible holistic life of mine adaptive dewatering feasibility, plus a water management strategy that aligned the needs of the Sorby Hills Project with those of the environment and ORIA.

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Koojan Downs Cattle Feedlot

Finding new sedimentary resources

In 2021 Pennington Scott completed a hydrogeology investigation drilling and modelling program underpinning the water supply and approvals for Western Australia’s largest integrated cattle-feeding facility at Koojan Downs near Moora, Western Australia. This investigation defined a previously unrecognised confined aquifer resource in the region.
The project will ultimately agist premium cattle using world best practice intensive 155 hectare fodder irrigation and effluent management.

Exmouth Marine Research Laboratory

Harvesting seawater from the ground

In 2021, the Minderoo Foundation opened a state-of-the-art marine research hub in Exmouth, Western Australia, in the heart of the UNESCO-listed Ningaloo Coast World Heritage site, to provide urgently needed science to address the impacts on ocean health and biodiversity from overfishing, habitat degradation, climate change and ingestion of plastics by marine life.

Pennington Scott proudly designed and installed the marine water intake and reinjection infrastructure to provide for a continuous supply of aquarium water within very fine water quality and temperature tolerances to support this important project.

Minderoo Irrigation Project

Managed aquifer recharge for fodder irrigation

Running a cattle business is always a challenge in Australia’s cycles of unpredictable drought and flooding rain. Pennington Scott designed and obtained approval for Minderoo’s first managed aquifer recharge (MAR) weir on the Ashburton River. Since its construction in 2011, CSIRO estimates the weir has doubled the seasonally available groundwater resources that would otherwise be available without the weir.
Pennington Scott has recently obtained approvals to develop a further ten MAR weirs to grow enough fodder to sustain the breeding herd and drought-proof the station.

Riverton Leisureplex Pool

Geothermal heat exchange bores to warm swimming pools in Perth

Public swimming pools try to maintain the pool water at a comfortable temperature and many pools used to close for the winter because it was too expensive to artificially heat the pools.
Pennington Scott has successfully installed geothermal groundwater systems for the Cannington Leisureplex and the Riverton Leisureplex providing a cost-efficient alternative to traditional gas heating at a fraction of the cost. The “open loop” system at both sites comprises two deep-water bores:

• a deep production bore abstracts hot groundwater from between 900 and 1,200m depth, which is supplied to a heat exchanger in the plant room; and
• the second reinjection bore returns water a few degrees cooler from the heat exchanger back to the Yarragadee Aquifer at around 500m depth.

Carosue Dam Gold Mine

Strategic Water Management

Pennington Scott has helped Northern Star deliver a life-of-mine operational water development and management strategy for the Carosue Dam Operation (CDO), which would optimise future process and potable water development to support a doubling of ROM throughput to 6 Mtpa. CDO is a significant gold operation comprising a remote gold processing plant, accommodation village and several satellite mines scatter over three mining districts which cover many square kilometres of hypersaline salt lake environment. Pennington Scott’s brief has been to deliver an optimised cost/benefit water exploration and development strategy which considers the regional hydrogeological prospectivity of potential resources; the cost of pipeline over increasing distance; reagent costs verses process water salinity; together with the cost of social, environmental and waste water management.

Perth Basin Hydrogeology Bulletin

Sedimentary basin expertise

The vast majority of Western Australia’s most-productive fresh groundwater resources occur in the Perth Sedimentary Basin, beneath the Swan Coastal Plain on the western seaboard of Western Australia, stretching over 800 kilometres from Augusta in the south to Geraldton in the north.
The collective technical knowledge of the Perth Basin is contained largely within three comprehensive bulletins published by the State Government, Pennington Scott produced the Southern Perth Basin Hydrogeological Bulletin in 2009 and Northern Perth Basin Hydrogeological Bulletin in 2017. A copy of the latter bulletin can be downloaded from https://www.water.wa.gov.au/water-topics/groundwater/northern-perth-basin/