McPhillamys Gold Project

Please find attached our letter regarding objections to McPhillamys

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I object to the proposed McPhillamys Gold Mine @ Kings Plain due to the fact it will have a negative impact on the people and wildlife that live in the area. The families who have a made a home in the area will be adversely affected by the noise and pollution. The families will experience a greatly reduced quality of life. The health of the families living in the area is a huge concern since health issues will arise due to the levels of particulates in the air. Property values will diminish greatly. The emotional distress will take a toll on all the people living in the area, especially the elderly. The environmental toll is also devastating. The air quality and the water quality will be negatively affected. This environmental impact will be a problem not just for this generation but for future generations to come. I strongly oppose this proposal.

I OBJECT to the proposal
REASONS FOR OBJECTION:
EFFECTS ON BELUBULA RIVER AND WATER RESOURCES
• The dangers to the whole river system associated with any toxic spills into the Belubula River Headwaters that runs through the mine site and will be buried for several kms by the mine tailings. Downstream from the mine the river flows through the town of Blayney, rich alluvial flats grazing land, and into Carcoar Dam. Tablelands Water supply might be polluted via the planned pipeline connecting Lake Rowlands and Carcoar Dam. Below Carcoar Dam the Belubula passes through several rural communities, much grazing and cropping country and ultimately feeds into the Lachlan River west of Cowra.
• Possible disruption to adjacent groundwater supply by bores sunk on the mine site to provide water for construction and operation before the pipeline from Lithgow is operational. Regis until recently denied this was planned. In addition, the rain that falls on the minesite will be harvested far beyond the 10% allowed to farmers, and will further reduce the presently available water in the Upper Belubula catchment.
• The plan to bring 13 000 000 litres of dirty saline water from Lithgow to the mine every day. This is water that Sydney does not want in Warragamba Dam, that has its origins in the degrading wetlands of the western Blue Mountains, that is polluted by being filtered through coal seams and by being used in a coal washery, and has its salt content multiplied by addition of brine, the waste product of a desalination plant at Mount Piper Power Station. The net result will be the introduction of a very large volume of poor quality water and the supply of thousands of tonnes of salt to the already overburdened Murray – Darling Basin.
EFFECTS ON THE ‘NEAR NEIGHBOURS’ OF THE MINE
• The proposed mine would have a dramatic effect on the near neighbours of the mine especially, but not limited to, the settlement of Kings Plains that live on the south side of the valley facing the mine that occupies almost the entire opposite northern side. Here the open cut pit will be excavated and a large waste rock disposal area including a high embankment to be constructed over a period of four years. This will be a continuous source of noise, dust, and at night, light pollution during the life of the mine – after the first 6 months of construction on the site it is proposed that mining activity will proceed for ten years, 24 hours a day, seven days a week and fifty-two weeks a year, blasting permitted for 12 hours a day. For most what attracted the residents to settle in the area around what may now become an industrial void and dump mine was the overall amenity of the area: the rural views that will be changed forever, the healthy environment that will be degraded, and the brilliant dark-sky to be gone for more than a decade

THE AFFECTS ON BLAYNEY TOWNSHIP
• Blayney town is sufficiently close to experience the noise of blasting, the night -light and in adverse weather conditions dust from the mine including that from the tailings that are enriched in elements including arsenic, copper, sulphur, zinc, cadmium, and selenium.
• While the proponents of the mine speak of additional residents, business opportunities, employment, and additional rate income, what is to become of the plans for encouraging tourism? Will there be accommodation available for tourists, will business be lost by the shops, cafes hotels and motels? Will tourists still want to come? Will the presence of a mine waste dump be a welcoming sign for those travelling along the eastern entry? What of the cost of renting in Blayney, already short of such accommodation – will the less well - off be squeezed out by well-paid miners? Will local businesses loose skilled workers and potential apprentices for the same reason? The mine life is 10 years – what will happen then to the work force residents of Blayney? Will they find the employment for which they have developed skills and will businesses buoyed by contracts from the mine survive the inevitable mine-closure bust and will the Shire accommodate easily to the loss of rate income?

INTERGENERATIONAL EQUITY

• The planned McPhillamys gold mine is a good example of intergenerational inequity. The present generation reaps the benefit of the sale of the gold won whereas succeeding generations inherit a toxic tailings dam designed to leak into the headwaters of the Belubula River, and a pit that will leak water contaminated to a degree that it is unsuitable for cattle to drink into the groundwater reservoir and possibly to the Belubule River for tens or hundreds of years. Additionally, in the absence of any strategy to minimize greenhouse gas emissions from the site the miners will leave a legacy contributing to global climate change, principally global warming and increased extreme climatic events. The latter increase the possibility of high precipitation events with the risk of deep erosion of the engineered steep embankments and the catastrophic release of mobilized tailings and acid metalliferous drainage.

NATIVE FLORA AND FAUNA

• Development of the mine site will lead to the destruction of 44 Ha of critically endangered Blackley’s Red Gum – White Box – Yellow Box grassy woodland and the habitat of at least two colonies of squirrel gliders, and at least one koala colony. Both animals are listed as vulnerable. Threatened bird species reported include the Regent honey eater. The Kings Plains district has a very wide range of commoner bird species as well as kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, echidnas, frogs and reptiles. All such fauna will be to a degree displaced by destruction of habitat and the effects of noise, dust, night light, and destruction of potable water sources. Combined these indicate a risk to local biodiversity and a reason for rejecting the mine.

LOSS OF PRODUCTIVE LAND

• The development of the McPhillamys mine site necessarily involves the loss of productive agricultural land, some of this permanently, for example the grassy woodland to be established on the site of the waste rock emplacement where grazing will not be possible. In a world short of food with a population estimated to grow to 9.7 billon by 2050 from the present 7.7 billon but no shortage of gold (over 40% is locked up in vaults) the morality of preferring gold mining over food production in a rich country like Australia must be questioned.
DECLINE OR LOSS OF BUSINESSES CLOSE TO THE MINE
• There are numerous small-medium sized businesses in the area around the mine site. Visitors will be reluctant to stay at AirBandB’s near the mine, equine pursuits may no longer be possible, riding tuition will cease because of the danger of blasting frightening horses, horse breeding and agistment cease because of the effect of blasting and toxic dust coating grass ingested by close grazing animals, honey and queen bee production end because of dust, organic and experimental biodynamic farming and tuition because of pollution, clients will probably no longer wish to board their domestic animals at kennels/cattery close to the mine.

I have been visiting the area around Kings Plains and Blayney for many years now to visit my family. The detrimental environmental impact this mine poses to the precious water resources, which are already scarce, and the fertile farming land are unjustifiable. The long-term health of this community and its land are paramount and should certainly be put way ahead of the short-term gain of big business.

My apologies to the DPIE and the IPAC for using a ‘form’ response. I have read it through and it does express my main reasons for objecting to the gold mine project.

To the people in charge of this ridiculous kings plain MINE Proposal.

I am a proud Waddi Waddi woman from the Yuin Nation in shoalhaven area of NSW. I’m 32 years of age and My family and I have lived in orange for 20 years. Now water is life and we are very quickly running out of our most precious Resource WATER! I find myself scratching my head that people in power sound educated but really all they really are, are greedy men! Your money will not wash my children clean, your money will not feed my family, your money won’t save you if there’s no water! So within saying that water is here for us to share for life not for a MINE SITE!
Wake up our children depend on it!

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I object to this project going ahead, I am deeply concerned if this project goes ahead that my job may not be secure. I am nearly 60 years old and finding other employment will be impossible for me and impact on my financial situation. I currently work at Goldfields Honey and have been working here for the past 5 years, if the mine goes ahead and they have to close down their factory due to dust & contaminants I will find myself out of work. I am also concerned regarding dust as I drink a lot of water at work and wonder if this will become harmful to me if the mine goes ahead.

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I strongly object to the above proposal on the following grounds:
1. The impact on our most vital resource “water”. My farm relies on ONE bore. No water, no livestock, no farm no income.
Regis states if our bore is impacted by their actions, Regis will make good. Is this after the livestock die or have to be sold. Pumping water from Lithgow that is not fit to go into the Sydney basin as the water is already contaminated with elevated salts & brine etc & then using that water on the mine site with possible devastating effects is an insult to our community. Water may evaporate, salts do not.
2. The 600-acre tailing dam is designed to seep into the Belubula catchment & onto the Lachlan & Murray Darling systems. Does the cyanide go with it? The cyanide process is responsible for 56 tonnes of toxic hydrogen cyanide gas entering the atmosphere every year. Another win for the environment, no doubt.
The 460-metre open pit will become a sink hole so the experts say & will alter underground streams & their behaviour for ever. Surely this fact will put our bores at risk
Have Regis the right to put all those families & farming businesses at risk, who rely on the water of the Belubula, Lachlan & Murray Darling Systems. Agriculture is our most important industry for the sustainment of our population, not the jewellery trade.
3. My property is 3-4 kilometres away from the mine site.
Are we expected to accept the dust issue (impossible to suppress as discovered by Cadia), the noise 24/7, the blasting every day, the lights changing the nightscape for 12 years minimum?
Is my tank water to be contaminated from the dust & salts blowing off the mine site?
I’ve been on this farm for more than 60 years (all my life). How have Regis the right to change my lifestyle & put my families future & the next generations future at risk. Is gold more important than the environment
4. Farmers naturally have an affiliation with nature by their very occupation. We plant trees & care about the environment. We don’t bulldoze hectares of native forests, ruining the habitat of animals & birds in the process.
Regis will change the landscape forever, leaving a contaminated ugly rockpile, useless for agriculture.
Regis are pushing the jobs created & the economic benefit for the community. What about the families already dispossessed, moved on & the families that will lose their lifestyle forever? Are they not more important, & has the economic cost to those families & loss of jobs on their farms been measured against the so-called benefits of another problem goldmine in a very populated district?
In closing I hope common sense prevails & a gold mine is not approved on top of so many people, where the mine will have devastating effects on local landholders & people living downstream of the mine site.
Yours faithfully
Cliff Willis
I declare I have NEVER made a political donation

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