http://www.theage.com.au/ (Austrialia)
Mining companies have been permitted to drill at the doorstep of the Grampians National Park, and the area could become ”a new copper belt” in Australia, according to one mining executive.
Since December, the Department of State Development, Business and Innovation has pushed through three exploration licences that allow companies to drill on either side of the Grampians, after geological surveys showed the area was ”highly prospective” for copper.
An application was lodged on May 7 by the Queensland miner Diatreme Resources for a government licence to begin exploratory drilling near the Grampians’ southern border. Last month it was approved after what the company said was the ”quickest turnaround” it had ever experienced.
”The speed at which they’ve granted this tenement, which took about four months, is the fastest we’ve ever had,” chief executive Tony Fawdon said. ”They can often take several years.” Mr Fawdon said the recent departmental surveys had identified substantial copper deposits, which are believed to stretch from the Grampians to the state’s north-west.
”We’re very excited by this, the department is very excited, and we think this could become a new copper belt in Australia,” he said.
The department also gave the go-ahead to Navarre Minerals and Northern Platinum to explore neighbouring areas south and west of the Grampians.
Exploration licences permit the company to search the area. But it would not be able to extract anything greater than small samples without a mining licence, requiring an environmental impact statement and a community engagement plan to be approved by the Planning Minister. Exploration and mining are strictly prohibited in national parks.
Mr Fawdon said mining activity would not affect the Grampians ”in any shape or form”, but would affect farmland to the south.
”How would 1000 acres of sheep weigh against a mine? I would suggest that the returns for farming in Victoria are getting skinnier and skinnier, but the benefits of a mine would be enormous,” he said.
The Southern Grampians Shire Council has welcomed greater copper activity, which brings the promise of generating hundreds of jobs. A wool producer, Adrian Lyon, who owns farmland south of the area earmarked for drilling, said he had concerns about the visual impact.
He said tourist groups regularly passed through Glenthompson, a small town in the crosshairs of the exploration licence.
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