news article

Saw this in the local Melton news.



Miner Keeps Mum

Kinda of weird, didn't we just invite them to an open day?

Miner keeps mum
13 SEP 11 @ 07:00AM BY AMI HUMPAGE


MORE than 200 landowners were left angry and disappointed after Mantle Mining failed to speak at a public meeting in Bacchus Marsh.

Organised by the Moorabool Environment Group, the meeting on September 5 was a chance for people to find out more about Mantle Mining?s exploration licence in the Bacchus Marsh area and how it could affect the community.

Group secretary Deb Porter said a broad cross-section of the community turned up on the night, including primary producers and landholders from as far afield as Bacchus Marsh, Melton, Eltham and Daylesford, but no one showed up to speak for Mantle Mining.

?People are angry Mantle Mining didn?t speak up,? Ms Porter said. ?The community is really starved for information.?

Ms Porter said residents were concerned about water and food security and all they wanted was more information.

She said Department of Primary Industries Earth Resources director Doug Sceney addressed the meeting and explained how an exploration licence was issued.

Mr Sceney reported that no objections were lodged against the proposed exploration licence before it was approved by the State Government. But he was quizzed how there could be objections if no one knew about the application.

Ms Porter said though the proposal was advertised in three local newspapers, none of the papers were delivered to the rural areas where landowners could be affected.

?If landowners had known this was proposed, they would have objected,? she said.

It is believed exploration drilling may have started near the Bacchus Marsh Airport, at the end of the south runway.