Mining company Murray Zircon accused of breaching environmental conditions
Farmers are threatening to lock the gate on a mining company they claim has breached environmental conditions of its lease. After investigating complaints, the South Australian government has ordered Chinese-owned company Murray Zircon to stop work at its mineral sands mine in the Murray Mallee.
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TVTranscript
00:00 Kevin Heydrich never wanted mining on his farm at Galga.
00:05 But after decades of fighting, he says he has a pit on his property that looks like it's in the Pilbara.
00:11 It's been off and on, they've been having a lot of trouble with that big plant behind us.
00:15 But then it's all the stockpiles we're worried about as you can see in the background.
00:20 Following numerous complaints from the Heydrichs, alleging environmental breaches,
00:25 the State Department of Energy and Mining issued a stop work notice to Murray Zircon.
00:30 The department asked the company to submit a change in operations application
00:34 after it created bigger stockpiles of overburden or topsoil, then approved.
00:39 Kevin is concerned that the breaches go beyond the compensation he was paid for mining activities
00:45 and compromise the investment he's made in improving his land.
00:48 The worry, you know, if they breach that, are they going to do the rehabilitation properly?
00:52 Kevin's concerned about the future viability of the land.
00:56 Farming industry groups are also worried.
00:59 A spokesperson for Murray Zircon said in a statement that the company ceased mining
01:04 and processing operations on Wednesday.
01:07 Any works now will only be rehabilitation, maintenance and transport of product.
01:14 It says it's working with the department to comply with its licence
01:18 and should be able to meet its directions within 28 days.
01:22 [BLANK_AUDIO]