By PHILLIP HOPKINS
VICTORIA’S prospectors and miners have highlighted the richness of the Central Highlands mineral wealth as the state government’s eminent panel begins its assessment of the community feedback to proposals about the future of the region’s forests. The future includes the possible creation of a Great Forest National Park that would stretch from Melbourne to north of the Latrobe Valley.
The president of the Prospectors and Miners Association (PMAV), Jason Cornish, said the latest report by the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council was a “punch in the throat” of all bush users.
“It seeks to change the status of hundreds of thousands of hectares of forested public land to more parks and reserves,” he said in the group’s Eureka Echo newsletter.
“Sustainable, legal logging was blamed as the cause of every environmental woe in Victoria and now that logging has been forcibly removed, what is the threat? Certainly not our activities.”
PMAV has two ranches in Gippsland – Stratford and Drouin.
A PMAV committee member, Dr Allan Rossiter, said there were many references on Central Victorian topographic maps to tungsten, wolfram and tin.
“Known deposits of tungsten, molybdenum and tin are numerous, but production has only been small. There are tantalising references in the literature,” he wrote in Eureka.
“Given the combination of deep soil, thick bush and poor access in the Central Highlands, it would not be surprising if important deposits have been overlooked. The main tungsten mineral present is scheelite, which is practically impossible to identify without an ultraviolet lamp.”
Dr Rossiter said three of the four prospects lie in zones designed recently by VEAC as large areas of outstanding natural values and relatively low conflicting uses.
“This is despite input into the VEAC study from the Geological Survey of Victoria. Tungsten and molybdenum have recently been declared critical ‘minerals’ by Geoscience Australia,” he said.
“Significant wealth could be denied future Victorians if the proposed national parks in the Central Highlands are not intelligently designed.”
The Nationals Member for Eastern Victoria, Melina Bath, has urged the state government to prioritise comprehensive geological assessments for gold and critical minerals in the Central Highlands during consideration of the Great Forest National Park debate.
Speaking in state parliament, Ms Bath, who is the Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Public Land Use, said large tracts of land through the Central Highlands area had been a source of mineral wealth and gold mining activities for over a century.
Calling on the state government to conduct expert analysis and recognise the value of Victoria’s mining industry, Ms Bath said any move to lock up the region’s mineral and metal wealth would be “a true sign of madness by the Allan Labor government”.
“Labor’s disastrous Great Forest National Park plan would block future mining access. Decisions made about public assets above the ground, must also consider valuable resources beneath the ground,” she said.
“The Woods Point – Walhalla Mineral Domain Belt region is rich in gold and metal resources including molybdenum, silver, antimony, tungsten, tin, platinum, and cobalt. These critical minerals are essential for many modern technologies and renewable energy industries.”
Ms Bath said modern underground mining poses negligible threat to biodiversity.
“Labor’s green ideology cannot bolt the door shut on Victoria’s future prosperity. There is minimal disturbance, which by law, licence and bond must be remediated and rehabilitated at conclusion of mining,” she said.
Ms Bath said it was imperative that all land uses be duly considered.
“Labor’s proposed Great Forest National Park cannot be another Allan Labor government fait accompli. Geological Survey Victoria estimates that there is ‘significant potential’ for gold and critical mineral deposits and with a crippling state deficit we must consider opportunities for wealth generation,” she said.
“The Nationals demand the Minister (Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos) to recognise the value of our mining industry for the future prosperity of this state.”
