Cr Brown said he was “somewhat surprised” by the company’s announcements this week, but did not believe there was much hope for Unity “getting its modification over the line.”

“I think it’s a great result for people power that all the parties, the community and the local representatives really did question Unity and obviously the pressure that they’ve got has come to bear and they believe that they should remove the application,” Cr Brown said.

“At the end of the day I think Unity Mining came to the only answer they could possibly come to, which is to withdraw their application and continue on with the mine that they had approval for in the first place, which did have community support, I understand, in Palerang.”

Cr Brown said council would continue to monitor the project through its representative on the Dargues Gold Mine consultative committee.

“As long as that committee goes, we’ll still be playing a role in keeping an eye on Dargues Reef and the implications, but considering there is no intention to use cyanide and to treat on site, the pressure is really off us to play a huge role, other than just a monitoring role at this point,” he said.

“There is still an application to change a few things and we will be having a closer look at their continued application.”