By Cagerattler
At last there’s been some announcements concerning the proposed Hard Rock Mine on ABC radio and in the newspaper and also the potential for some gold mining up around Mangana I believe. The new coal venture especially has the potential to create significant job prospects, has gone through final approvals and scrutiny and is slated to start within the next few months. The gold venture is a little less certain but exciting none the less.
Of course there is the direct issue of planning and implementation of the new mine/s and the people directly employed at that stage and within three years, when Hard Rock hope to be fully operational, but the bigger picture is the spin off to the whole area. Some sceptics seem to think that it might be a fly in/fly out type of operation although no-one from the company or those in the know have suggested this is the case. Last thing I heard via a local real estate agency radio interview was that housing was being sought for newcomers to the area to get the mine started and beyond.
How good would it be to see local business, property owners, schools, hospitals and supply and tender’s interests getting a chance to be part of a long overdue new venture in the area?
It’s also pretty clear that during the due diligence processes of environmental impact, protection for historic sites etc. little or any objection came forward which is pretty rare these days so hopefully quite soon the wheels will begin turning on either or both of these developments; maybe a fresh start for locals and newcomers alike and prosperity again to a Valley that has missed out on so much due to a lack of sustainable industry for decades. One day wouldn’t it be awesome to see our young being born, educated, trained for careers and successfully employed, bringing up their own families in the area if they so desired – this might be a small step toward that.
What do you think? Rodney McGiveron.
