Gippsland Critical Minerals is pushing ahead with its application to establish a rare earths mineral sand mine near Bairnsdale.
Rescoping of the failed Kalbar proposal is to be completed by December this year, however well respected doctor and former East Gippsland Shire Councillor, Jane Greacen, continues to have concerns for the health of East Gippsland’s citizens.
“Rare earth mining from mineral sands carries a range of human health risks,” Dr Greacen said.
“We do not need more health issues on top of what we already have. It’s not just adding new ones; it compounds existing ones.
“East Gippsland has a higher rate of some cancers, lung disease and childhood developmental disorders than the rest of Victoria. It has the top 10 per cent of the most disadvantaged people in Victoria, with lower SEIFA index (more disadvantage) in most parts of the region. “It has significantly higher preventable hospitalisation rates than the state average.
“Almost 30 per cent of the population is aged 65 years and over, with all their associated health issues.”
Dr Greacen expressed her concern that the project could generate huge amounts of dust, despite the project rescope indicating overburden would be removed with an in-pit dozer reducing the amount of on-surface hauling via trucks.
“This dust has the potential to create deadly pollution with airborne particulates that can be breathed deep into the lungs and that carry neurotoxic, radioactive, carcinogenic, and mutagenic elements,” Dr Greacen said.
“Dust from rare earth mining contains radioactive uranium and thorium. These dusts can be respirable, that is they are small enough to be breathed deeply into the lungs and then absorbed into the body. The level of radioactive elements is low in the sands, but the process of mining them concentrates them. In addition, the mining processes increase the concentration of the Naturally Occurring Radiological Material (NORM).
“These substances cause cancer, but it can take decades for the cancers to become apparent. Similar mining in Asia has caused significant increases in cancer in nearby towns. The dusts also contain silica, which causes lung cancer, chronic obstructive airways disease and silicosis.
“The fine particle dust would contaminate reservoirs that store the nearby towns’ drinking water (3.5 kilometres away) and the Mitchell River water and therefore the Gippsland Lakes. It will contaminate water in domestic tanks; and the major local vegetable growing industry on the Mitchell River flats.”
Dr Greacen said the impact on Aboriginal health would be significant as this mine site is close to culturally significant heritage sites, meaning artefacts, significant trees and ancient middens could be obliterated.
“Local Aboriginal people have said this place is
spiritually and historically important to them,” Dr Greacen said.
Heavy mineral sands deposits occur in the Murray and Gippsland Basins in north-east and south-east Victoria. Australia has a fifth of the world’s potential supply of rare earth minerals. It has the world’s largest deposits of zirconium, titanium-rich rutile and second largest deposits of titanium-rich ilmenite.
China controls more than 80 per cent of global rare earth supplies and processes more than 95 per cent, according to Dr Greacen, and so in 2023, Australia and the United States signed a compact, with the aim of working together to build a “clean energy supply chain” outside of China.
The Australian Federal Government announced recently that it will spend $1.2 billion to establish a national stockpile of lithium, rare earths, nickel, cobalt
and graphite.
“Is our health going to be bartered for minerals?” Dr Greacen questioned.
“This level of government commitment to
rare earth mining has the potential to overwhelm the need to protect people, country, lifestyles and land
for agriculture.
“We have rare earth in sites around Bairnsdale, but a mine so close to our town is the wrong place for a mine. Will the need to protect our health, our land and our water be more important to the Federal and State governments than the minerals in this mine? How do we convince them of this?
“The costs of providing health care will grow, as would the costs of addressing the impact on a poor socioeconomic community with high unemployment levels, and losses from impacted agriculture and associated supply chains.
“It is not ok to be blasé about people developing cancers that are avoidable. It is not ok to permit an industry to increase risks to human health and the country.”
