Your rights with exploration licences

With the boom in exploration licences in NSW it is pertinent for people to understand their rights. The NSW Minerals Council offers the following advice;

Exploration licence holders must reach a land access agreement with the landholder before  exploring on their land. Landholders may not veto exploration, but access arrangements must be negotiated and in place before exploration may commence. The negotiations regarding access arrangements are part of the important consultative process undertaken by the explorer. Legal advice may be sought to assist in the negotiation process.

The access agreement details the conditions on which an explorer will access the land and any compensation payable. All access arrangements should be based on the understanding that explorers are „guests‟ on private land and an appreciation by landholders of the needs and rights of mineral explorers. Courtesy, respect and honesty help to build effective working relationships between explorers and landholders.

The NSW Minerals Council has developed the template Land Access Agreement for Mineral Exploration to assist negotiations for land access arrangements.

Exploration licence does not mean they have the right to mine, that is granted through a mining licence.

Mining Act 1992 ;

Crookwell Bush Poets

The weekends festivities with the annual Bush Poets festival and competition was another great success.

With people coming from all over the state as well as interstate to compete and watch meant there was a great diversity of poetry with a highly attentive audience. Young and old alike took part and it was highly entertaining and a most memorable weekend.

Regular Bush poets nights are 7pm, second Wednesday night of every month at the Laggan Hotel.

Don’t forget the Crookwell Potato Festival in March!

The Poets triangle ; Crookwell bush poets wool wagon awards ; Australian Bush Poets association ;

Spud Murphies Inn ;

 

Crookwell rail

Goulburn Crookwell Historical Rail had their November monthly meeting yesterday at the Bowling Club in Crookwell yesterday.

Progress on the rail continues with plans and work progressing on the Crookwell to McAlister line. At Crookwell Station plans for a small museum in the station there are progressing.

Along the line repair work continues with sleepers being replaced and upgrades, maintenance on the line and lands, restoration of railway memorabilia.

At McAlister discussions with stakeholders and landowners are progressing with plans beginning for a new station to replicate the old as well as looking at destination activities that can revitalise the village. In the photo to the left, taken 71 years ago, Ken and his wife Ena and their children Joyce and Noel are on their way to Crookwell to do shopping via a trike. Ken worked and lived at McAlister station.

 

Meetings are 11am third Thursday of every month at Crookwell Bowling Club (next meeting December 17th 2011). All welcome to attend and join. Drinks available at the club, lunch available at a small cost, often a raffle of goods donated by local business.

Crookwell Branch Line ; Crookwell rail heritage ; Crookwell Rail pics

Wind farms useless!

Update ; a pic above of what the eco elites say wont kill birds. Can you imagine any bird making it through there alive? Q. Why did the bird cross the road? Because it was safer than flying through a bird shredder! (wind farm).

Even the monarchy is now admitting that wind farms are useless! The UK Telegraph reports on the Queens husband;

“In a withering assault on the onshore wind turbine industry, the Duke said the farms were “a disgrace”.

He also criticised the industry’s reliance on subsidies from electricity customers, claimed wind farms would “never work” and accused people who support them of believing in a “fairy tale”.

It’s refreshing to see the eco elite finally agree with the rational and sane man and woman in the street. These over subsidised pieces of junk that ruin the landscape and kill huge amounts of rare and endangered birds should never have been put in let alone have taxpayers money squandered on them.

When wind farms often don’t run (when the wind doesn’t blow) it means no less coal fired power stations are being built; when projections for wind farm electricity generation are constantly exaggerated; when wind farms can cause a spike in power loads which causes other problems; when wind farms are detrimental to peoples health; when wind farms often have no clause for their removal; when most of the products involved in wind farms construction are not environmentally friendly – then this green wind farm madness must come to an end. The only people who seem to benefit from wind farms are the rent seekers who gorge themselves on the wind farm subsidies.

If the money wasted on the lie that wind farms are good for the environment was put into planting trees and repairing the landscape instead of destroying it with 40 story spinning towers we would be much, much better off.

The greatest scam of our age ; The big green lie ; 14,000 abandoned wind farms in USA ; Carbon pricing killing wind farms ; The disastrous wind farm reality ; Electromagnetic skull spasms ; Wind farm hell ; Wind energy killed a lot more Americans than nuclear ; Wind turbines devastate property values – average losses over 30% ; I feel very depressed, some days I could just curl up and cry

Wind farms do not provide large economic and job benefits ;

Taralga Bauxite

Update. You can read more about the bauxite proposal through their presentation here.

Area between Crookwell and Laggan looks prime for future drilling.

Recent rumours that there has been a significant bauxite discovery at Taralga have proven true with Asia miner initially reporting a deposit of around 12 million tonnes, double what was previous thought. Australian Bauxite Ltd reported updated this in May this year saying that the resource is now around 25 million tonnes yet reports completed by them indicate they have a goal of 40 million tonnes (page 6). The initial deposits are approximately 4m – 2om deep and located to the south west and north west of Taralga in area EL 7357.

The NSW government exploration proposal can be found here What is interesting is that there is a second area, ELA 4072 the un-drilled one of which covers Crookwell, Laggan, Roslyn and McAlister.The bauxite is often found under basalt soils which protect it from erosion. A further 2 applications have been made by ABX2 Pty Ltd for bauxite mineral exploration being ELA 4323 (306 km2) on the 14th July 2011 and ELA 4350 (309 km2)on the 15th August 2011.

The goal of the operation is to sell bauxite to the Asia Pacific, especially China. Australian Aluminium Council Ltd reports there are six primary aluminium smelters in Australia, namely Bell Bay (Tasmania), Boyne Island (QLD), Hydro Kurri Kurri (NSW), Point Henry (VIC), Portland (VIC) and Tomago (NSW), meaning the deposit is only hrs away from smelters near Newcastle and 145km to port at Wollongong. There are no restrictions on bauxite exports, there being a big demand and short supply of high quality bauxite (as found at Taralga) that can be processed into alumina at low temperature. Further identification of market was documented at the 2011 Mining Conference on the 27th of October 2011.

Initial investigations were commenced in 2009 by Australian bauxite Ltd. On the 6th of October ASX announced “Marubeni (of Japan) have concluded a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly conduct a pre-feasibility study in relation to the Goulburn-Taralga bauxite project located in New South Wales, Australia“. ABX2 said of the Guyra mine that bauxite is free dry diggable, no blasting and no water runoff. They also prefer rail as a means of transport and Taralga presents short haulage distance of the rail line to Port Kembla export port.

Cadia Hill gold mine ; Copper Zinc mines at Peelwood ; Gold prospecting in NSW ; Sapphire fossicking ;

Crookwell healing

Welcome to Crookwell the healing. It is spring, with life abundant. Crisp clean mountain air, crystal clear bubbling brooks, the dams are full, the pastures lush, the birds singing in the air. Starry, starry nights, moonlight across the hills.