State Significant Development
Bowdens Silver
Mid-Western Regional
Current Status: Determination
Interact with the stages for their names
- SEARs
- Prepare EIS
- Exhibition
- Collate Submissions
- Response to Submissions
- Assessment
- Recommendation
- Determination
Development of an open cut silver mine and associated infrastructure. Link to Independent Planning Commission's page for the Project https://www.ipcn.nsw.gov.au/cases/2022/12/bowdens-silver
Attachments & Resources
Notice of Exhibition (2)
Request for SEARs (2)
SEARs (3)
EIS (25)
Response to Submissions (14)
Agency Advice (42)
Amendments (18)
Additional Information (32)
Recommendation (2)
Determination (3)
Approved Documents
There are no post approval documents available
Note: Only documents approved by the Department after November 2019 will be published above. Any documents approved before this time can be viewed on the Applicant's website.
Complaints
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Make a ComplaintEnforcements
There are no enforcements for this project.
Inspections
22/08/2023
Note: Only enforcements and inspections undertaken by the Department from March 2020 will be shown above.
Submissions
Shilpa Jain
Support
Shilpa Jain
Message
Name Withheld
Support
Name Withheld
Message
Name Withheld
Support
Name Withheld
Message
Jane Hagan
Object
Jane Hagan
Message
The Lue area is beautiful and is home to many people and businesses that have worked tirelessly to put Lue and Rylstone on the map. The area produces beautiful wine, world class olive oil and many other quality products including wool, which is currently having a well deserved resurgence in popularity. There are many people who enjoy living in and visiting this area for its pristine environment and world class produce. Visitors come bringing essential money to the local economies of Mudgee, Rylstone and Lue and this will stop if the area is polluted by an open cut mine producing lead dust.
If this mine goes ahead the whole area will be poisoned beyond repair. Grapes and olives will not be able to be used due to lead dust in the air. Animals and humans alike will be poisoned. The water supply (both table water and precipitation), already reduced due to drought, will be poisoned. Even the local creek will be poisoned and this will not be able to be enjoyed in summer any longer. In short, the mine will destroy many local industries and the environment and not benefit the local area in any way. The mine has made clear that no compensation will be made to nearby property owners or businesses for the irreversible damage it will cause.
Furthermore, children at the local schools will be immeasurably impacted by the hundreds of trucks rumbling past their classrooms every day and polluting the air. Businesses and residents along the truck route will also suffer from the noise and particulate pollution.
James Allen
Support
James Allen
Message
Name Withheld
Support
Name Withheld
Message
Name Withheld
Object
Name Withheld
Message
Name Withheld
Support
Name Withheld
Message
NSW (and more generally Australia), needs projects like these to help us come out of this pandemic induced recession stronger than ever. The jobs and economic activity this proposed Bowdens Silver project will bring to the Mudgee communities will be invaluable in getting us through these tough times. And now with the NSW/VIC border closed, putting even more pressure on local communities in the area, its time we stop focusing on what we’re closing down, and start looking towards supporting the initiatives that want to open up.
Given the above, it is clear we need to support the Bowdens Silver project. As Australians, we need to look towards retooling for a future that involves taking our sovereignty back. And this project is one of many we will need to stay ahead.. before we become the next Vanuatu of the region, and indebted to a ruthless foriegn power.
Daniel G
Sophia Louison
Support
Sophia Louison
Message
David Johns
Support
David Johns
Message
Local employment is vital to get these regions on a more sustainable basis.
Mark Petterson
Support
Mark Petterson
Message
As the objectives of Bowdens Silver in developing and operating the Project are to maximise the recovery of the silver, zinc and lead minerals from the defined ore reserves within the proposed open cut pits and undertake all activities in an environmentally and socially responsible manner to demonstrate compliance with relevant criteria and satisfy reasonable community expectations.
Also to ensure the health of its workforce and the surrounding community is not adversely affected; preserve the existing character of Lue; maintain a positive relationship with the surrounding agricultural industry and maximise productivity on land retained for agricultural production; provide a stimulus for the Mudgee, Rylstone, Kandos and district economies.
Name Withheld
Object
Name Withheld
Message
Lue is a village of about 50 homes and surrounded by about 90 small and larger farms, B&Bs, vineyards, the olive grove and other tourist businesses. 26 kms from Mudgee, 20 kms from Rylstone and 10kms from Windamere Dam.
Lue is less than 2 kms from the mine site.
The mine is open cut, 52ha in size and is in fact a lead mine with lead and zinc making up 99.5% and 0 .5% of silver.
Lead is poisonous and there are no safe levels of lead exposure. It is especially dangerous if exposed to young children.
The lead dust could travel great distances, hundreds of kilometres or further if the wind is in the right direction. Think of the dust storms we experienced in Sydney during the drought, but you won’t see this lead dust, its too fine.
They plan to mine and process 24/7.
The noise will be incredible, blasting, processing, mining machinery and equipment and trucks and traffic on the road.
There will be a Tailings Storage Facility 700m from the creek.
The toxic rock waste will be wrapped in plastic and will be there for eternity, along with the tailings dam full of poisonous sludge. Never to be rehabilitated. Never removed. At Lue forever.
They will be using Cyanide and other poisonous chemicals in the processing plant.
We don’t have much water in our valley, the creek comes from springs, some within the mine site and runoff from rain and we have groundwater bores. Our groundwater and our creek are connected and will both be contaminated by the mining.
Our creek will dry up to a few ponds because they plan to take an average of 806 million litres of rainfall and runoff every year, all the rainfall and runoff from their site. The creek is connected to the mine pit which after mining has ceased will take 200 hundred years to fill and will suck in groundwater to replace any evaporation forever.
Mid Western Regional Council, our local council, will not openly oppose the project, because one of the councillors is employed by Bowdens. Local country politics are a tricky business. The mayor has the best pub in town. Its difficult to get council’s support but surely they must care about the health of the community.
Silver prices are too low for mining to be profitable and demand for silver is dropping. Silver is used in solar panels but if the price increases the manufacturers of solar panels can and will use other products. A big worry is that investors like the super funds, on advice to diversify and offset some other risk, will invest start- up capital and the mine will commence and then be found to be unprofitable after a few years and the miners will just walk away leaving a huge mess. Bowdens are not miners, neither is Silver Mines Limited, their owner. There is a bit of a story behind SVL and its backers and shareholders and some of their previous projects and the way they suck in investors. They have a pretty slick website. The project is supposed to bring jobs to the region but at the expense of all or most of the other jobs in our area.
This project is advertised as the biggest undeveloped silver deposit in world. And that is a terrifying prospect. Lue is not Mexico. Who would want Penasquito at Lue.
This mine will be bad for tourism, farming and for all the people who live in and around Lue. Our children will be poisoned by lead, our water contaminated, the site will never be rehabilitated, the poisonous tailings dam and a pit void full of contaminated water, it will be there forever. 700m from the creek and 2kms from the village. Forever, for eternity.
Lue is in an earthquake hazard zone as in the massive Newcastle earthquake and the earthquake at Newcrest Cadia Mine at Orange…the tailings dam will fail. They all do.
Lead poisoning is irreversible and especially bad for developing children.
This is not a coal mine, it is much much worse.
All the water in Lue and the creek will be acidified and undrinkable.
Lead dust will travel for miles, poisoning rainwater, gardens, animals and people.
Please take these concerns into consideration when ruling on this contravention project,
Yours in good faith,
Bruce Wilson
Thomas Nursey
Support
Thomas Nursey
Message
I have seen the devastation the closure of the Cement Works and Coal Mines have had on the communities and associated infrastructure. . Economically, environmentally and mentally. They are all connected in the context of a viable community. Silver Mines presence will work to address this I feel certain.
I have read silver mines submission and looked at them on the ground.
Kind regards
Tom
Name Withheld
Support
Name Withheld
Message
David Bainbridge
Support
David Bainbridge
Message
Paul Skelton
Support
Paul Skelton
Message
The growth in jobs, revenue and community benefit for Mudgee and the local area will carry through to Newcastle and the greater region allowing the state to continue to grow on the strength of mining.
Name Withheld
Support
Name Withheld
Message
Name Withheld
Support
Name Withheld
Message
Bowdens Silver have managed their land in an ecologically sustainable way, from their dedication to correctly rehabilitating drill sites to the implementing of effective operations for the control of feral animals and noxious weeds. The EIS indicates that they will continue to maintain their high standards in these areas.
The Bowdens project stands to provide a much needed boost to the local economy, and the company to date has done a commendable job of ensuring that wherever possible, local businesses are engaged and given priority over non-local businesses. Many businesses in the Mudgee area in particular could not exist in any form if it were not for the mining industry.
The mining industry has performed a major role in providing off-farm income for farming families, helping to drought proof farming operations. The land under which the resource deposit exists is nonproductive, non-fertile land. So long as the operation is carried out to the high ecological expectations which the company has laid out, the Bowdens Project can only have a positive effect on the local farming community.