Bowdens Silver

There is absolutely no feasible reason for this mine to go ahead. The major concern is inadequate availability of water. The original mine project included a proposal ton pipe surplus mine water from the Ulan and Moolarben Mines near Mudgee but this idea has now been firmly scotched. Instead they have put in an amendment whereby suddenly they believe they can find enough water on site. The community has been given just two weeks to comment. It is totally unfeasible.
Please see detail notes in the attachments.

This Amendment , proposing that sufficient water for mine operation can be extracted from the immediate area of the mine site, ignores reality.
Any attempt to do so would have devastating effects on environmental flows in local creeks. Taking water from groundwater reserves would have ongoing negative effects on bores in Lue, which are already stressed in dry periods.
The pit resulting from mining operations would form a groundwater sink , capturing more water to replace evaporation and causing an ongoing waste of water. The tailings dam would create an even more serious threat . Acid Mine Drainage from the dam is inevitable and would have ongoing effects.
There are many instances where this has occurred in Australia eg Sunny Corner (near Portland), Woodlawn (near Tarago), Captains Flat (near Canberra), Rum Jungle, N.T. There is no reason to expect this would not occur at Lue. If permission to proceed is granted Bowdens must be required to lodge a bond sufficient to ensure effective containment of toxic waste for hundreds of years.

I object to the Bowden Silver mine and its subsequent amendments for the following reasons:

Lead which is what the mine will produce is poisonous and is in close proximity to a junior school and homes. Lead even in extremely small doses is EXTREMELY harmful to children in particular.

The proposed mine will have an unreliable water supply and this will mean that the mine will have to shut down during droughts.
Lawson Creek is identified in the NSW Stressed River Assessments to be in the most seriously stressed category with a high level of environmental stress as well as a high extraction rate it is unsuitable to have a mine relay solely on this water source, putting undue pressure on this already stressed water source.
Bowdens Mine proposes to transfer water licences from further down the Macquarie catchment as well from the Sydney basin catchment, further depleting Lawson Creek which is unacceptable for the community.

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