www.kingsgate.com.au
24
Operations Report
CHALLENGER SUSTAINABILITY
Employees
The Challenger workforce totalled 272 at  
the end of the financial year comprising 100 
Kingsgate personnel (employees and casual 
contractors to fill vacancies); and 172 contrac-
tors. Contractors on site include: Leighton with 
154 personnel providing mining services; 
Sodexo, 12 personnel providing catering and 
cleaning services; Powerwest, 2 personnel for 
power supply services; and AWG, 4 personnel 
for air leg and rise mining services.
Turnover for Challenger permanent employees 
during the financial year was 23%, with 23 
terminations and 22 new starters. New 
employees recruited on a casual basis with a 
view to permanency accounted for 19 positions.
During the year Kingsgate have rebuilt the 
Challenger management team improving the 
depth of mining engineering experience. The 
new management, combined with targeted 
training has brought about a cultural change 
with the emphasis now being on proper plan-
ning, appropriate contractor management, 
accountability. To encourage staff retention, 
there was a focus on improving the site facilities 
with an upgrade to the mining office as well as 
site communications to allow employees to 
communicate with their families while on site.
Community
The remoteness of Challenger mine – 310 kilo-
metres by road from the nearest town at Coober 
Pedy – reduces the capacity for local involve-
ment with surrounding communities. Challenger 
continued to support its nearest communities 
with local sponsorships including:
〉〉 The Umoona Community Council;
〉〉 Glendambo Pastoralists Ball;
〉〉 The Royal Flying Doctor Service; and
〉〉 The Coober Pedy Football Club.
Challenger is located within the Commonwealth 
Government, Woomera Prohibitive Area (WPA). 
The Department of Defence (DOD) continues to 
utilise the area for rocket testing and other 
commercial activities. In the last 10 years DOD 
have not impacted on mine operations.
Challenger Mine has fostered strong relations 
with the University of Adelaide over the past 
nine years. Each year selected students from the 
Schools of Geology and Mining Engineering 
undertake field trips to Challenger, where they 
experience a very detailed and hands-on intro-
duction to mining. Kingsgate offers academic 
Bursaries and Prizes to students in both 
disciplines. 
Environment
Full details of all environmental monitoring 
reports and a detailed review of all environ-
mental issues are contained within the 2013 
Mining and Rehabilitation Compliance Report 
(MARCR). The MARCR can be downloaded from 
DMITRE’s website www.minerals.dmitre.sa.gov.
au and can be found using the search word 
“Challenger”.
Water usage
A supplementary groundwater extraction bore 
(Gusher 3) was commissioned at Challenger to 
increase the supply of potable water made 
available to the accommodation camp. A third 
reverse osmosis plant was also commissioned to 
accommodate the increase in volume of water 
that needs to be filtered for potable use.
A total of 436,175 tonnes of water was used to 
process 556,631 tonnes of ore during the finan-
cial year with a ratio of 0.78 tonnes of water to 
one tonne of ore. Water usage was reduced 
onsite via recycling of supernatant water from 
Tailings Storage Facility (TSF) 2 via the decant 
water return system.