PROTESTERS will gather in Moruya next Sunday to rally against Unity Mining’s proposal to process gold with cyanide at its Majors Creek mine.
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Unity has submitted a variation to its development consent to include final gold processing with cyanide at the Dargues Gold Mine, which sits at the headwaters of the Eurobodalla’s water supply.
The company says it has exhausted all other options and processing the gold on site is the only option left to progress the development.
The move sparked the ire of the Eurobodalla and Palerang communities, who are concerned that on-site processing using cyanide was not part of the approved plan.
The company also has a history of environmental breaches after sediment washed into local creeks in 2013 during the mine’s construction.
Protesters will take to the waters of the Moruya River on kayaks and canoes on March 1 at 11am, paddling from the Moruya District Hospital to the Moruya Boat Ramp.
After the paddle they will gather in Russ Martin Park to hear a range of speakers, including Greens representatives.
Greens candidate for Bega Margaret Perger, who is spokeswoman for the organisers of the protest, said the event was about sending a message to politicians that residents were “gravely concerned” about the proposal.
“We don’t believe that we can trust this company on this site at this time,” she said.
“We just think the risk is too high.
“If we have heavier than normal rain, we could have run off effects.
“We’ve got two food growing areas in the Deua and Araluen area and then the Eurobodalla’s water supply.
“They thought they made all the provisions at Fukushima but we don’t know what happens when things are not what you predict.”
Ms Perger said the company should be required to lodge a new development application which would come under greater scrutiny, rather than amend its existing approval.
She encouraged community members to join the group in their protest.
Meanwhile a petition signed by more than 2500 people was delivered to Planning Minister Pru Goward’s office in Goulburn on Monday, calling for her to scrutiny of the project.
It calls into question the “process that is unfair to tens of thousands of landholders, business owners and residents surrounding the development and downstream to the coast”.
The petition states the proposal is unfair because a development application listing “on-site processing or storage using a hazardous material such as cyanide” had not been submitted, nor had there been a “comprehensive” Environmental Impact Statement of the potential impacts associated with this type of processing.
Related coverage: Cyanide processing will be properly scrutinised, says Unity Mining CEO
