Boral back in WA sand pit

BUILDING and construction materials supplier Boral Limited will soon be mining its own sand in WA.

The expected signing this week of an historic agreement with Swan River and Swan Coastal Plains Native Title claimants will help clear the way for the grant of a mining lease on crown land in the Gnangara pine plantation area.

With final governmental approvals, Boral will then be able to recommence sand mining operations in WA, something it has been looking to achieve since it ceased mining for sand in WA five years ago.

Supplies of construction sand are all but depleted from the Jandakot area, the main supply region for the southern Perth metropolitan region.

And competitor Rocla Industries – with which Boral has purchase contracts for its current WA construction sand needs – has extensive operations in Gnangara, the centre for sand mining in the north metropolitan area for more than 30 years.

Over the past three years Boral has

been securing the necessary government approvals while negotiating with the Nyungah people.

Native Title has not yet been determined for the Swan River and Swan Coastal Plains, but as a claim has been registered, a statutory right exists to negotiate.

In such circumstances, mining companies generally seek to secure a Native Title agreement.

The Boral lease is in an environmentally sensitive region, located on the Gnangara water mound, an area of particular spiritual significance for Nyungah people.

While Boral’s agreement will be the first mining agreement with the Nyungah claimants for this region, independent facilitator for the agreement, Marcus Holmes, said several additional factors made this agreement unique.

These included the amount of goodwill shown over several years without resort to the Native Title Tribunal, and agreement for the Nyungah representatives to be present at future meetings held between Boral and government authorities regarding Gnangara operations.

The claimants, seeking environmental protection and preservation of Aboriginal sites, have also gained guaranteed employment of a Nyungah monitor loader operator, four Nyungah traineeships per year, and claimant involvement in ongoing land rehabilitation.

Boral also funded independent experts to assist the claimants with technical and financial matters.

Boral was represented by Minter Ellison and the Swan River and Swan Coastal Plains claimants by Dwyer Durack, but the involvement of Mr Holmes, a Deacons senior associate, as an independent go-between for the parties meant the negotiations were relatively cost effective, Mr Holmes said.

The claim before the Federal Court is not expected to be decided for some years, but even if Native Title is not proven, the Boral agreement will continue to stand, as key parts of it are founded on Aboriginal heritage protection issues, Mr Holmes said.

Boral transports the sand it is now buying in, and with transport the major cost of the $3-4 per tonne commodity, the company’s most significant benefit from its own

local sand mining operation would be independence, Boral Australian Construction Materials division manager Mike Barry said.

Boral ACM quarry operations manager Bruce Gardiner said the 698 hectare Gnangara mining lease would provide the majority of the company’s annual yellow and fill sand needs, with the balance of the sand mined sold externally.

Yellow sand, mined with a dry screening process, would be used for concrete production and lower quality fill sand would be used for major civil works.

Mined out areas will be progressively rehabilitated with native flora species and no mining would occur within three metres of the water table, Mr Gardiner said.

Of the total lease, 340ha would be disturbed, with 247ha of that comprising the mine area.

Sometime in the future Boral may also look at mining white silica sand for export, Mr Gardiner said, but would need groundwater extraction approval.

Pine clearing is the responsibility of the Forests Products Commission.