INDEPENDENCE GROUP NL SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2017

TROPICANA GOLD MINE The Tropicana Gold Mine, located on the western edge of the Great Victoria Desert, is a region dominated by sand plains, sand hills and sand dunes covered with Marble Gum ( Eucalyptus gongylocarpa ), Mallee ( Eucalyptus youngiana ) and Spinifex ( Triodia basedowii ). The sand plain communities surrounding the Tropicana Gold Mine have an extremely high small-vertebrate diversity with more species of terrestrial reptiles and mammals per hectare than anywhere else in Western Australia. Monitoring vegetation condition and abundance is required on an annual basis at Tropicana in accordance with the mine’s approval conditions. The results are reported in the Tropicana Gold Mine annual environmental report. Tropicana Gold Mine also completes an extensive fauna monitoring program and supports regional fauna research. The program includes monitoring at both the site’s six artificial water ponds and the tailings storage facility. The artificial water ponds were established to provide preferential water sources to the site’s tailings storage facility to minimise fauna deaths that could occur if fauna use the tailings liquor as a water source. The liquor poses a hazard to fauna because it contains low concentrations of a toxic processing reagent (weak acid dissociable cyanide). In FY17, there were no material losses of wildlife associated with Tropicana’s tailings storage facility. NOVA OPERATION The Nova Operation is within the Great Western Woodlands, an area of high biological richness that comprises almost 16Mha, extending from the edge of the wheatbelt to Kalgoorlie-Boulder in the north, to the inland deserts and the Nullarbor Plain to the east. The operation is situated approximately 80km from the eastern edge of the Great Western Woodlands, covering only 0.03% of the total woodland area. A number of field surveys were conducted during the feasibility phase of the project to inform the approval process and assist with protecting the flora and fauna within the Operation’s footprint. A total of 45 vegetation communities were mapped in the study area, comprising 28 Eucalypt woodland communities, 13 mixed shrublands and scrub communities and four hummock grassland communities. A total of 142 vertebrate fauna species including 40 reptile, 82 bird and 20 mammal species were recorded during the field surveys during the feasibility phase of the Nova Operation. FLORA AND FAUNA In accordance with our Environmental Policy, IGO is committed to understanding and protecting the flora and fauna communities at each of our operations and project sites. Impact monitoring is currently undertaken to understand the ongoing impact of mining activity through comparative photography at pre-defined photo- monitoring survey points. Periodic surveys are employed to measure impacts to fauna, triggered by the different stages of a project or a proposed modification to an existing operation. 76 — IGO SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2017