INDEPENDENCE GROUP NL SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2017

The Tropicana Gold Mine is an unincorporated joint venture managed by AngloGold Ashanti. IGO holds a 30% interest. While IGO has no direct management of the mine, members of IGO’s Executive Committee meet formally at least twice quarterly with AngloGold Ashanti’s site and corporate management to review both the joint venture’s performance and the risk management processes. These reviews address any occupational health and safety issues, environmental management performance, community engagement, and the mine’s physical and financial performance. Additionally, IGO receives daily performance reports on production and safety outcomes. LOCATION The Tropicana Gold Mine is located 230km east of Laverton and 330km east-north-east of Kalgoorlie. Tropicana comprises approximately 4,100km 2 of tenements that stretch over more than 180km in strike length along the Yilgarn Craton and Fraser Range Mobile Belt Collision Zone. The mine sits within traditional lands variously overseen by the Central Desert Native Title Services, the Goldfields Land and Sea Council, and the Wongatha claimant’s North East Independent Body representatives. BACKGROUND The area containing the current gold reserves was identified and pegged by IGO in 2001. A joint venture with AngloGold Ashanti was entered into in 2002, and thereafter Tropicana, Havana and Boston Shaker gold deposits were discovered in 2005, 2006 and 2010, respectively. The deposits occur over a 5km strike-length with gold mineralisation intersected over a vertical depth of 1km beneath the natural surface. Construction of the 220km access road commenced, following Western Australian and Federal Government approvals in early 2011. The development of site infrastructure including an aerodrome, accommodation village, borefields and a processing plant was then completed. In June 2017, an Audit Team Leader and a Technical Specialist WASTE The key waste streams from the mine are waste rock and tailings. Waste rock, in addition to the gold-bearing ore is extracted from the various pits. The waste rock contains some material that is classified as potentially acid- forming, which if left unmanaged and exposed to the elements, has the potential to generate an acidic discharge with potential negative downstream consequences to biota and groundwater. To mitigate this potential risk, the waste rock dumps have been designed and are being constructed to ensure that any potentially acid-forming material is encapsulated within benign waste rock material, located well within the dumps and specifically avoiding the outer slopes of the waste rock landforms. Mine scheduling of waste rock ensures compliance to this risk mitigation strategy. Tailings, water-based suspended fine crushed rock, sand, and clay produced from the processing plant once the gold has been recovered are pumped into the engineered designed and purpose built tailings storage facility. The design of the facility allows the tailings to settle and form a ‘beach’ that drains to a central pond, where tailings liquor is recovered and returned to the processing plant. Key environmental consideration in this part of the process is the presence of weak acid dissociable cyanide in the tailings liquor. The development of Tropicana has required the clearance of 5,787ha of vegetation. This includes both mining and exploration and open pit disturbance. Both putrescible and inert waste is disposed of in the on-site landfill. completed their verification audit of the operation for compliance to the International Cyanide Management Code in accordance with the ‘International Cyanide Management Code Verification Protocol for Gold Mine Operations’ and using standard and accepted practices for health, safety and environmental audits. The auditors recommended full compliance to the International Cyanide Management Institute (ICMI). Mining of the Havana deposit commenced in 2012, with the first gold produced in September 2013, and post-commissioning, nameplate capacity of 5.8Mtpa was achieved in March 2014. The Tropicana Gold Mine employs open pit mining techniques of ore and waste rock using conventional blast, excavator and truck bulk mining methods. Gold-bearing ore is processed on site. Processing involves primary and secondary crushers, grinding in a high-pressure grinder and ball mill, thickening (followed by cyanide leaching and carbon adsorption), carbon elution and regeneration, tails thickening and disposal, and tailings water recovery. CONSUMABLES The main consumables at the mine are gas, diesel, lime, cyanide and carbon. Electricity is generated by a gas fired power station, supplied by a buried gas pipeline, which was completed in February 2016. The power station consists of 17 gas generators, which have replaced the old diesel generators but have the capability to run on diesel if required. The improved efficiency of the gas generators improves the new power station’s energy reliability and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. The Tropicana Gold Mine operates a fleet of open pit mining equipment – the primary consumer of diesel on site. 129koz GOLD PRODUCED (IGO’S SHARE) IN FY17 IGO SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2017— 35