Wednesday, 19 June 2024

Central Highlands mineral resources

Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (18:18): (976) My adjournment this evening is for the Minister for Environment, and the action I seek from the minister is to instigate a comprehensive assessment of critical minerals and metals in the Central Highlands and the proposed great forest national park footprint. I also ask him to recognise the value of our mining industry for the future prosperity of this state.

Victoria has the highest gold endowment of any state in Australia, and it also is rich in critical minerals of national importance. The Woods Point area in my Eastern Victoria electorate, in that Walhalla gold–‍mineral belt, is resource-rich not only in gold, and it has been a centre of gold for over a hundred years. This same proposed area has rich deposits and has an opportunity. There are many people with the potential, the scope and the capacity to safely mine that area under all the right regulations and legal entities and laws, but they are very concerned that it is about to be locked up for good. These resources include molybdenum, silver, antimony, tungsten, tin, platinum and cobalt. Many of these are used in new technologies and renewable energy industries. The loss of these resources would be a true sign of madness from the state government. It is known and recognised that these are very low impact industries, and it is actually stated as a low-impact exploration. There is minimal disturbance above ground, which by law, licence and bond has to be remediated and rehabilitated at conclusion of mining. All gold mining in Victoria of course is done underground now – no open cut – with a small footprint.

The government has set up an eminent panel – it has set up a Great Outdoors Taskforce – and the future of that public land is in grave doubt. Many Victorians, and I agree with them, feel that that taskforce lacks independent and technical geological expertise. It lacks accountability. We have seen excursions where the panel has gone out to various places and people were not allowed to take photos and could write sticky notes. Sticky notes were good back in year 9 science but not when we are having a very serious conversation about what to do with the future of our resources and our mining industry. Conservation objectives and modern mineral resource development do not have mutually exclusive outcomes; we can have conservation and resource development. Exploration and underground mining are not a threat to biodiversity – all of those areas are really important. The action I seek from the minister is to make a thorough assessment and include economic geologists in that mix.