Just ahead of the long summer break, mining company Unity is applying for permission to do on-site cyanide processing of ore that contains lead, cadmium, zinc as well as gold at Dargues Mine at Major’s Creek, NSW. Cyanide processing is NOT a safe practice and can have irreversible effects on humans, plants and wildlife.
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If Unity is granted permission to build a smelter, the village of Major’s Creek, local businesses, the creek that is the headwaters of the Eurobodalla South Coast water system, would be under permanent threat.
Unity Mining had three pollution incidents at Dargues in the six months they operated, as well as a collapse of their initial workings. The site is on steep land, over looking Major’s Creek township and the thriving orchards and other businesses of the Araluen valley, that bring in more economic benefit than the proposed mine and smelter. Spring Creek on the Dargues site is the headwaters of the Eurobodalla water system for much of the NSW South Coast, a major tourist attraction.
The company has shown itself to be prone to accidents to this steep site, with five environmental breaches in the six months they operated, thee of which they have been prosecuted and fined for so far.
I join with the many other concerned locals who have researched the effects of cyanide processing and urgently request that approval be refused for this unnecessary and dangerous smelter to go ahead. The procedure is dangerous, the company has already shown it cannot meet even basic safety procedures and is considered duplicitous in its dealings with local residents. The people and environment of Eden-Monaro need protection from this proposed change to Unity’s conditions for operations.
Virginia Hooker (Professor Emeritus)
Braidwood
