Thin edge of the wedge

As Chalice says in its recent corporate presentation, ‘The Gonneville Resource occupies around only two kilometres of the more than 30km long Julimar Complex – its development could be a province opening play’.

A ‘province’ in mining-speak is a geographic area containing particular mineral deposits.
Chalice’s statement implies that the plan is to first mine Gonneville, as a way to open up mining in the rest of the ‘province’, namely the Julimar State Forest.

Keep in mind that the Gonneville mine will be a hole in the ground approximately 1.7 cubic kilometres in size (1.9 x 1.5 x 0.6 km).

It will generate huge amounts of tailings and contaminated water, along with requiring 18 million litres of water per year for processing.

We do not know where this water will come from, nor do we know whether or how that hole in the ground will be filled, and somehow revegetated, at the end of the mine’s life – or who will pay for that.

Now, imagine if similar holes in the ground are dug out along the ‘30km long Julimar Complex’, as Chalice calls it.

It would cause horrific environmental destruction and must never be allowed to happen.
It is one thing to develop a mine on private land that is already partially cleared; it is quite another to do so on public land consisting of mature forest.

The Julimar forest has survived more or less intact after previous extractive industries such as selective logging for timber and tannin.

But there is no way it could survive a new assault of this magnitude.

Chalice offers soothing words about ‘offsets’, but as pointed out in the excellent article by Bethan Lloyd in last month’s Herald, offsets are largely a sham.

The fact is, we need all the forest we can get.

We are in the middle of global climate and biodiversity crises threatening the very survival of our modern civilisation.

Healthy forests are essential to halting both of these crises.

The more we destroy our forests, the more we will destroy ourselves.

We cannot extract ‘green metals’ at the expense of green forests.

The best way for Chalice to earn community trust would be for it to publicly declare a permanent end to its exploration of the Julimar Forest.

The Julimar is non-negotiable, and we must reinforce its protection by urging government to confirm the Julimar as a national park.