Blicks River Guardians
Media Release 17th March 2015
No to mining on the Dorrigo Plateau
Left to Right:
Independent Deb Novak, Christian Democrat’s Carol Ordish, Independent Bryan Robins,
Country Labor’s Trent Nathan, The Greens’ Janet Cavanaugh
Country Labor’s Trent Nathan, The Greens’ Janet Cavanaugh
A public forum was held on Sunday 15th March at the Dundurrabin Community Centre on the Dorrigo Plateau where Labor and Greens candidates from the Oxley electorate and Labor, Greens, Christian Democrats and independent candidates from the Clarence electorate debated the upcoming election issues.
The event was hosted by the Blicks River Guardians a local community group who formed in July 2013 to raise awareness of gold, copper and antimony exploration in local catchments. A spokesperson for the group, Meredith Stanton said,
“Ahead of the forum we sent questions to the candidates and asked, “Do you agree. Is mining an inappropriate land use for the Dorrigo Plateau?”, because our group has serious concerns about mining development in our area and the risk of water contamination.”
A majority Chinese-owned company, Anchor Resources holds three exploration leases covering private and public land on the Dorrigo Plateau. The Blicks Project (EL 6465 & EL 8100 - Scorpio Resources) is a gold and copper prospect located about 2km’s from Dundurrabin and the third - the Bielsdown Project (EL6388)- is an antimony prospect located in the Oxley electorate, above the Nymboida River catchment near Dorrigo.
Ms Stanton added, “The forum was a great success and I’m pleased to report that all seven candidates who attended voiced opposition to any mine development here on the Dorrigo Plateau. We are still waiting to hear from the Nationals who could not attend, but we hope they will reply in writing when they have time.”
The Dorrigo Plateau has one of the highest annual rainfalls in NSW and receives an average of 2000mm of rainfall p.a. with daily falls of over 400mm recorded during the 2009 floods.
* Member for Clarence Nationals MP Chris Gulaptis did not attend. According to his electorate office he sent his apologies.
BACKGROUND
Candidates standing in the Clarence Electorate on 28 March 2015:
No comments:
Post a Comment