Residents living near the Fosterville Gold Mine say they are rocked by regular earthquakes. The mine says its expansion will boost the local economy by $1.3 billion over 10 years. Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny will decide if the mine can expand its operations next year.
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00:00Derek Carney loves the serenity of his Axial property near Bendigo, but underground blasting
00:08by the nearby Fosterville goldmine is causing him grief.
00:11All the vibrations, they put you on edge when you're going on, because you can just be around
00:15doing your normal business and all of a sudden it's, whoa, what's going on here?
00:20Fosterville admits its operations sparked a 3.5 magnitude earthquake in November with
00:25reports of damage to at least nine homes.
00:28A state government inquiry examining the mine's pitch to expand its operations over the next
00:33decade has heard from many concerned residents.
00:37Once it gets to the point that it's shaking the house, rattling the windows, that's where
00:41I start going, nah, this is not how it should be.
00:45The mine told the inquiry about 100 more homes could be in the impact zone if it's approved
00:52to expand.
00:54Fosterville declined an on-camera interview but told the inquiry it employs more than
00:59800 people and another 10 years of the mine's operation would inject $1.3 billion into the
01:06region.
01:07But experts say that would come at a cost to the environment.
01:11Which is like death by a thousand cuts, it's yet another impact that our already stressed,
01:17degraded and depleted ecosystems need to deal with.
01:21Meanwhile, the state government revealed a plan last week to speed up the environmental
01:25assessment process for potential mining projects, cutting the time down from three years to
01:3018 months.
01:32We want to make good decisions, we want to have those good decisions done in a more efficient
01:37way to provide certainty for both businesses and the communities of the outcomes.
01:42Whether Fosterville keeps operating is in the hands of the Planning Minister, a decision
01:46is due next year.
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