A regional Victorian council has declined to join a mining company’s community reference group, with the mayor saying the council is “disgusted” with the company’s attitude towards community concerns.
WIM Resource invited Horsham Rural City Council (HRCC) to join its Community and Coexistence Reference Group (CCRG) for the proposed Avonbank mine in Victoria’s west.
The mineral sands mine will cover 3,426 hectares near Dooen, about 10km north-east of Horsham, where the Chinese-backed company proposes to operate 24 hours a day and dig up 12.75 million tonnes of heavy mineral concentrate over 38 years.
The proposed Avonbank mine would cover 3,426 hectares. (Supplied: WIM Resource)
On its website, WIM Resource anticipates construction of the Avonbank Mine will begin later this year or early next year, but the company is still waiting for its mining licence approval from the Victorian government.
HRCC mayor Brian Klowss said such a group was “premature” given WIM did not have approval for a mining licence.
“There may be a place for such a reference group in the future, if the mining licence is granted, but council can’t afford to be putting resources into something that has not received approval and may not ever receive approval,” he said.
“There are still a lot of questions that remain unanswered with the Avonbank mine.
“A decision on the mining licence was due January 2026, and continues to be delayed, so something is not quite right.”
Cr Klowss said it would cost ratepayers for the council to join the reference group.
“Just the resources that it’ll take to put staff members onto this, it costs money,” he said.
“All this goes back to all of these projects that are across the Wimmera and Mallee.
“Councils are being asked to foot a bill for them without any funding, external funding from any of these organisations.”
The Avonbank mine proposes to extract 12.75 million tonnes of heavy mineral concentrate over 38 years. (ABC News: Nethma Dandeniya)
Cr Klowss questioned why the Victorian government continued to provide extensions to WIM Resource.
“There’s obviously issues going on there, and they’re getting extension after extension,” he said.
The council said it was told in a meeting with the Victorian government that a decision would not be made before the end of the year.
“That’s 12 months, which you’ve got to say enough’s enough,” Cr Klowss said.
“If there are so many problems with granting this mining licence, why are we [continuing] to spend money on it?”
In a statement, the Victorian government said WIM Resource requested an extension to provide additional evidence supporting its mining licence application.
The ABC understands once all the information is received, the application will be assessed by Resources Victoria and a decision made.
Mining is not permitted unless a licence is granted and a work plan is approved.
Communities around the proposed mine site in Dooen have raised concerns about the mining project. (ABC News: Nethma Dandeniya)
Community concerns
Cr Klowss said WIM Resource and the Victorian government had not reached agreement on issues that the council and the community had raised.
He also said the mining company had not answered community concerns put to them.
“I’ll be honest, I was quite disgusted in their attitude when it came to talking about the issues,” he said.
“They just wanted to spruik the benefits of it; they didn’t want to talk about the issues that we’ve got, especially in regards to this pile of heavy mineral concentrate that’s going to be stacked out in the open — there’s dust issues with the real-time monitoring.”
Cr Klowss said for the council to support the mine, the company would need to address the issues raised by the community.
“Keeping everyone in the dark about it actually raises red flags”, he said.
“If they’re doing this before they’ve actually got a mining licence, what’s it going to be when they’ve actually got a mining licence?“
Mayor Brian Klowss says the council has been “disgusted’ by WIM’s attitude to community concerns. (ABC News: Gillian Aeria)
The Avonbank mine is one of 10 mineral sands projects planned for the Wimmera-Mallee and across the NSW border.
The mine plans to produce rare earth elements, zirconium and titanium-rich minerals — elements used to produce batteries, medical devices and electric vehicles.
Cr Klowss said the council was also concerned about the company holding a mining licence over the intermodal freight hub at Dooen and the rehabilitation prospects of the land.
“This will be the biggest land-use change that’s potentially happened since this land was settled and cleared … I’d say it’ll be probably the best part of 150 years ago,” Cr Klowss said.
He said he had written to Minister for Energy and Resources Lily D’Ambrosio about the community concerns and requested she meet with the council on the issue.
He said the minister had not been available to meet directly, but that the council would continue to offer the invitation.
WIM Resource invited Horsham Rural City Council to join its Community and Coexistence Reference Group. (ABC News: Nethma Dandeniya)
WIM said it accepted the council’s decision not to participate in the reference group, but remained open to its future involvement.
“WIM has held a constructive meeting with council CEO recently regarding the CCRG and will follow up to discuss their involvement,” the company said.
“WIM values its relationship with Horsham Rural City Council and has engaged extensively with [the council] for over a decade.”
In response, Horsham Council said the community wanted to see genuine commitments from WIM to act, and not just agreeing to meet.
Council said it had raised specific health, amenity and environmental issues at previous meetings.
