Miners face tree change challenge

DONNYBROOK-BALINGUP Shire resident Deanna Shand has been in a hurry to learn about mining development in her region after becoming concerned about a neighbour’s plans to start a gravel pit operation.

While gravel extraction is not mining, the possibility of operations and truck movements has Ms Shand worried about the impact to her property value and the picturesque Preston Valley as a whole.

Operating a small biodynamic orchard about two kilometres down the valley from the proposed excavation, she said a plan to expand into tourism by adding chalets to her property may have to be put on hold.

“(There’s) no point, with excavators and machinery and potential dust in summer,” Ms Shand told Business News.

Subsequently, she has learned about the numerous exploration projects that have sprouted up in the South West, mostly since the lithium boom prompted by the energy transition.

Several companies have become active in the area which, unlike most prospective locales in Western Australia, has a mixture of successful mining and downstream processing fringing a well-populated region of small farms, lifestyle residents and increasing tourism activity.

It is a unique blend of activities that have lived comfortably side by side for decades. 

But the intrusion of exploration for the first time in most people’s memories has the potential to change that, with shires such as Donnybrook-Balingup and Manjimup already dealing with resident concerns.

That increasingly valuable lithium may be present throughout the region has prompted a flurry of activity, especially as thick vegetation and agricultural land use, as well as the commodity’s invisibility to remote-operated scanning technology, means it’s challenging to locate without surveying on foot.

Public companies such as Kula Gold, White Cliff Minerals and Galan Lithium have exploration tenements ranging from Donnybrook to Kirup to as far south as Donnelly River.

Shire of Donnybrook-Balingup commissioner Gail McGowan said the issue of mineral exploration had been bubbling away at a number of local governments in the South West.

"One of the primary concerns as presented to council is around the notification requirements to landowners under mining legislation,” she said.

“As well as the notification issue there is the broader consideration of the compatibility of land uses, particularly in areas with a strong tourism/agribusiness focus.”

Ms McGowan said there had also been discussions on the matter with the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety.

“It would probably be fair to say that landowners have been caught by surprise in some instances to find that their properties are subject to exploration licences or permits,” she said.

“The question of what notification requirements should be in place and in what circumstances, along with who should be responsible for notifications, is very much an issue under discussion.”

Ms McGowan said the shire had not adopted a formal position and would shortly be advertising its draft local planning strategy for public comment and was likely to canvass this issue. Manjimup has engaged with the problem after voters wanted the shire to ensure ratepayers and residents were made aware of mining-related applications.

The shire voted in March to advise the public, via online means, of mining-related applications when it had received notification, and to work with the state government to review the public consultation processes in the Mining Act.

Kula Gold chief executive Ric Dawson said dealing with residents of the area had been very different from his experience in more remote regions because the farms were smaller, freehold owners had more rights than pastoral leaseholders, and there was little recent history of mining exploration.

“It is just people are not aware because people have not done any exploration down there,” Mr Dawson told Business News.

Ric Dawson says Kula is taking a patient approach to developing public awareness.

That is despite regional advantages such as access to roads, power, downstream processors, and ports.

He said big miners had shied away from the area due to management complexities. In some ways that had been a benefit to smaller operators, he added, as there was a suspicion about larger corporations.

“Even though we don’t have the [big companies’] resources, we are a lot more nimble and can meet people and talk it through,” Mr Dawson said.

“We are not an ogre.” He said Kula was taking a patient approach to developing public awareness, walking residents through the process, which generally involved very basic soil sampling in the first instance, and making sure they understood their rights.

“To gain access to walk on the property doesn’t give them [explorers] rights to put a mine on the site,” Mr Dawson said.

“We need a land access agreement before the Mines Department allows us to use any mechanical machinery on the property.”

He said competing land uses in a smaller area made it more complex. “Out in the Wheatbelt it is easier to deal with one or two people than a lot of them,” Mr Dawson said.

“You have to take things a lot slower [in the South West].”

Save Preston River Valley chair Jeff Bremer said he had organised opposition to two tenement applications near Donnybrook that had been withdrawn in March, suggesting that explorers would bow out if the process became too hard.

Mr Bremer said loopholes in the system meant property owners had not been informed of the tenement applications.

“I was wondering why no-one in the area had opposed it,” he said. Mr Bremer said the scale of applications in the area was staggering, with 11,000 square kilometres made or awarded in the state’s South West in the past six months, largely without the local population realising it.

“It is a bit of a silent revolution,” he said.

“It is not normal.

“It is a high-population area in farming land. “Because they don’t inform the landholders they get a lot of applications through the courts.”

However, local business lobby group Bunbury Geographe Economic Alliance chief executive Brant Edwards believes the push-back against mining is somewhat overblown.

“Fundamentally, mining and mineral processing is really the cornerstone of the [local] economy,” Mr Edwards said.

“The importance of that can’t be stated heavily enough. “Generally, the population down here understands that.

“The flipside is we live in a pretty nice part of the world and the lifestyle is highly valued.

“We have a number of tree changers for lifestyle and the nimby effect is certainly in play.”

However, he was clear where he felt local concerns lay.

“There is more angst about getting workers and where do they stay. This the real challenge,” Mr Edwards said.