Tractors roll into Mudgee as IPC reassesses $1 billion silver mine proposal

Plans for a $1 billion silver and lead mine in Central West New South Wales are being reassessed as opponents take to the streets of Mudgee in tractors to protest.

Approval of the Bowdens Silver Mines Limited project was deemed "void" by the NSW Court of Appeal in August 2024. It had been approved by the state's Independent Planning Commission (IPC) in April the previous year. That decision was overturned when the court ruled the IPC should have examined the potential environmental impacts of the project's transmission line.

The IPC has now started three days of hearings as part of its reassessment. Silver Mines Limited managing director Jo Batershill told the panel today the merits of the project were now stronger than when it was approved in 2023. He said it was in the best interests of the local and regional economy, the state's strategic minerals goals and the nation's contribution to the global renewable energy transition.

"The strategic rationale is now stronger today that when it was originally approved," Mr Batershill said.

The proponents are seeking approval to extract 30 million tonnes of ore over 23 years.

A group of protesters gathered in Mudgee ahead of the public hearing on the Bowdens silver project. Today's "tractorcade" was similar to a protest held in 2023 when residents of Lue, about 26 kilometres east of Mudgee, disrupted traffic through the famous wine region.

Protester Tom Combes, who farms sheep and cattle at Lue, described the mine proposal as "just nuts".

"All the people that live out there, all of their lifestyle, their health and their amenity is going to be destroyed," he said. "We're not going to have a bar of it."

Mr Combes is one of 97 speakers set to give evidence over the next three days.

Lead concerns A conditional safeguard measure introduced by the IPC during the previous assessment saw Silver Mines Limited offer voluntary blood testing for residents and, in particular children at Lue Public School, 2 kilometres from the project.

Janet Walk lives 9 kilometres from the proposed site and told the IPC the offer made her nervous.

"You don't test children's blood unless you think the lead is going to appear in the blood," she said. "There is no safe level of lead in a child's blood." "The monitoring will tell us that the child has lead in their blood, but it won't stop it, it won't treat it."

Tractor protest participant Jamie Inglis, whose cattle property is 5 kilometres from the site, shared that fear.

"There are a number of concerns… contamination of Lawson Creek, which is the lifeblood of our farmers," he said. "We don't need silver and we definitely don't need lead."

Susannah White raised about the potential impact of lead on livestock.

Susannah White was worried about the future of her beef farm on Lawson Creek, downstream of the proposed mine site. She referenced the Australian and New Zealand Food Standards Code, which stipulates that livestock cannot be sold or consumed if lead above 0.24µmol/L is detected in the animal.

"If this mine is approved it means our business is unviable," she told the hearing. "These animals could need destroying because they can't be sold and they can't be moved." "What are the animal welfare implications when you run out of feed because you can't sell the animals like you normally would?"

The initial approval The 2023 IPC decision was successfully challenged by the Bingman Catchment Landcare Group. The court found the panel failed to consider the impacts of a 13km transmission line that the Department of Planning and Environment had deemed required a separate application.

Dozens of people drove tractors from Lue to Mudgee, where the IPC is holding a three-day hearing into the Bowdens silver mine application.

In response, the state government passed legislative changes that allow off-site infrastructure for state significant projects to be assessed separately. With the original project approval still considered void, the project must now be reassessed.

Fresh assessment A new three-person panel of commissioners was appointed in September to make a new determination on Bowdens's proposal, with the IPC stating the "previous determination has no influence on this new assessment".

No changes have been made to the original project application, but Silver Mines Limited has provided additional advice to the state's planning department that will be considered.

Mr Battershill told the panel that additional assessments, including biodiversity and climate change reports, showed "the merits of the project before the commission today remain unchanged".

While admitting that the project was not supported by everyone in the community, Mr Battershill pointed to a supplementary report provided by the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure that found the "project benefits outweigh its residual costs and that the project is in the public interest and is approvable".

The IPC initially scheduled two days for the hearing but added a third following significant community interest in the development. It is expected to make a determination by December 9.