Environmental Responsibility

Responsible Environmental Practices

Nova has a strong values-based approach to sustainability, with the ultimate aim of delivering responsible environmental, social and governance practices that lead to the creation of economic returns for our shareholders and the creation of shared value for all of our stakeholders.

Nova takes its environmental responsibilities seriously and is committed to achieving excellence in environmental management through understanding the sensitivities of our operations and reducing the impacts of our operations as low as reasonably practicable.

Nova commits to rigorous standards and governing frameworks, to ensure responsible environmental practices are followed in all its operations. To achieve its objectives, Nova commits to:

  • Implement practices, systems and behaviours that contribute positively to the environment in a sustained manner;
  • Responsibly manage our operations to minimise adverse environmental impacts, in line with statutory obligations and community expectations (our social license to operate);
  • Instill positive environmental awareness through education of employees, contractors and external stakeholders; and
    Promote the efficient use of energy, water and other resources, minimising waste;
  • Regularly monitor and review environmental performance.

Reducing Waste Through Ore Sorting Operations

Nova is investigating the use of X Ray Transmission (XRT) technology at our Alaskan mine site to lower the environmental footprint of our mineral processing operation enabling waste material to be stored in rock piles rather than in a wet tailings impoundment.

This is achieved by sorting ore and separating out materials based on their specific atomic density. This allows a high purity level in sorted materials to be obtained. More efficiently sorting waste removes bottlenecks further down the mineral processing circuit with higher head grades resulting in improved leaching and flotation recoveries.

XRT ore sorting technology is an effective way of improving downstream mineral processing operations and allows more throughput of valuable feed for downstream processes such as leaching, flotation or gravity concentration. It also affords significant CAPEX and OPEX savings by reducing the size of the plant and equipment required to undertake ore sorting and waste disposal processes.