24 Operations Report CHALLENGER SUSTAINABILITY Community Environment Employees Water usage www.kingsgate.com.au 〉 The Umoona Community Council; 〉 Glendambo Pastoralists Ball; 〉 The Royal Flying Doctor Service; and 〉 The Coober Pedy Football Club. 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. 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.  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. 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.  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”. 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: