copper mine impact on gulf

IMO Prof Kaempf is rather sloppy in his conclusions and I think he is fishing for money to do a reseach project.

He ignores that 10 km to the north and on the same escarpment as Hillside is the Arrium open cut dolomite mine. Both are about the same distance from the sea just under 1 km approx. The dolomite mine has been there for decades and to talk about dust problems and impact on gulf stream flows is absolute RUBBISH.

The dolomite is used to line the blast furnaces that BHP had around the country.
eg Whyalla where the operations been going for approx 100 years

I started crabbing in the area with my father in the 1950's. We where located directly in line with the dolomite mine and it was one of our most productice crabbing spots over the past 60 years in the Ardrossan area. So we never saw any problems with dust and the impact on the gulf IMO is zilch. If there was something going wrong you thing I MIGHT HAVE NOTICE OVER THE PAST 60 YEARS.

Today farmers still plant crops right up to and ajoining the Arrium mine. They also run sheep grazing on the stubble and this practice has not changed over the decades. So thats further proof there is no problem.

When farmers plough up their land during the March- May period to prepare and plant crops you often get bad dust storms that can carry for hundreds of miles. In view of this situation farmers need to have a close look at their own land management practices. They are adding more to air pollition to the atmosphere than what a mine would. So lets turn the tables on these farmers and demand that they clean up their own act.

I now live in Adelaide and we get the dust storms from the farmers. A couple of years ago visibility was only 50-100 metres and i remember a Singapore jet had 3 attempts at landing but then flew onto Melbourne. The dust closed the airport for hours. Costs??????

There is one farmer Mr Tom Saint from Maitland leading a protest group.(Write up in todays Advertiser page 31). Funny but his farm is around Maitland 16-18 or so miles away and I think he would not be affected by dust because the prevailing wind are from the northwest and when the cool change arrives its from the south.

He overlooks that the dolmote mine has had no impact and also farmers are planting crops adjoining the dolomite mine

Thus IMO the protest group is all about votes for the next state election due in March 14. Its well known that the greens oppose mining and here are a few supporters running around stirring up the community with any excuse the can think of.