bm drilling underway

http://www.onmydoorstep.com.au/heritage-listing/43993/maddingley-no2-coal-mine

if you fiddle with the google map link on this site you can find the open cut brown coal mine at maddingley very easily.

the exford rd/parwan site of MNM's drilling rig ann'd this week looks like it is about 1km or so from the heart of the Maddingley mine. Longer termers here will recall the great trouble MNM has gone to to peg every square cm around Maddingley.

they will also recall that the pilot tests that confirmed BM coal's suitability to the exergen CHTD process were done with coal supplied by the Maddingley mine - see the 11/1/11 MNM ann -

http://www.mantlemining.com/files/announcements/933685.pdf

the 11/1/11 ann also states:

'The Company progressed very positive discussions with Calleja Industries, the owner/operators of the Maddingly open cut coal mine at Bacchus Marsh - potential development of the Bacchus Marsh brown coal deposit'

is the plan to construct the demonstration scale CHTD plant at BM going to involve using the plant and facilities that already exist at the Maddingley brown coal mine? it would make 100% sense.

the owners of Maddingley have been looking for a way to commercialise their brown coal mountain for 20 years -

http://www.vcec.vic.gov.au/CA256EAF001C7B21/WebObj/Submission54-MaddingleyBrownCoaloriginal/$File/Submission54-MaddingleyBrownCoaloriginal.pdf

and now a listed asx company that is going to enter a JV with a private group owned and funded by multinationals to do exactly that is drilling all around them? what would you do if you owned Maddingley?

I wonder how the green crusaders against brown coal mining at BM will find a way to complain about this given that the Maddingley brown coal mine has been operating in their community since 1946.

The fact that open cut brown coal mining has been underway in the BM area for 60 years+ has curiously not yet found its way into any of their media releases. Yet this is exactly what they are saying should never be permitted at BM?