Farmer fury over rare earths mine approval

West Australian

26-06-2025

A state government has promised regional jobs and growth after rubber-stamping one of the world's largest rare earths mines, but farmers say their concerns and rights have been bulldozed.
Mining company Astron's Donald Rare Earths and Mineral Sands Project won Victorian state government approval on Wednesday, the last regulatory hurdle for mine's first stage, which will upend more than 1100 hectares of broadacre and livestock farmland in the state's west.
The majority of impacted farmers in the tiny town of Minyip, 320 kilometres northwest of Melbourne, first heard the news when they were contacted by the media after Astron's ASX announcement.
"All we've seen is, frankly, fluff from the mining company and the government department has followed suit with very poor connection with the people directly affected," third-generation grain farmer Andrew Weidemann told AAP.
"It's very disappointing, given that the government has always been saying the mining company was supposed to be good corporate citizen and meet with people."
Mr Weidemann said farmers would be taking their fight to the steps of parliament, and to the courts over a failure to provide impacted farmers with key documentation.
Farmers say Astron's plans to gradually rehabilitate land as mining progresses won't be enough to return it to pre-mining productivity, due to the soil's unique clay structures and water retaining ability in one of the driest parts of the state.
"This soil type has not been mined before - they're open about that," Mr Weidemann said.
"We've seen where other mines have operated, particularly up at Ouyen ... where the land has still not been repaired back to anywhere near its potential usable state for agricultural purposes."
Dust contamination, including from radioactive dust, is also a major concern for neighbouring farmers.
Rare earths elements and mineral sands are used in a number of high technology and defence applications, including batteries, electric cars and wind turbines.
Donald Mineral Sands, which would become the fourth-largest mine of its kind in the world, is projected to produce 7000 tonnes of rare earth concentrate and 250,000 tonnes of heavy mineral concentrate each year, with a mine life of 41 years, Astron chief executive Tiger Brown said.
"We've been working with the department (of energy and resources) on requirements and ensuring that our project stands up to Victoria's regulatory regime," he said.
Roughly 200 jobs would be created during construction, along with another 180 to 200 full time jobs directly employed by the mine and Astron expected to inject $480 million of investment into the local economy.
The Victorian government was kick-starting Victoria's "critical minerals boom", energy and resources minister Lily D'Ambrosio said.
"All mining processes in Victoria are heavily regulated and the safety of the community, environment and infrastructure is built into key approvals," she said in a statement.
The Donald Project's minerals will be sent straight to Astron's United States joint venture partner Energy Fuels for processing and sale in the US.
"Energy Fuels plans to import the rare earth minerals from the Donald Project into the USA, where we will process them into separated oxides at our mill in Utah for domestic and other customers," Energy Fuels chief executive Mark Chalmers said in a statement.