It would appear that Bathurst and Orange will benefit more than Blayney will from this gold mine.
- Dan Sutton - President BHPG
With four weeks to go before submissions regarding the McPhillamy's Gold Project close, the Belubula Headwaters Protection Group is holding its first public forum this Tuesday night October 8 at the Blayney Community Centre.
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Commencing at 6pm president of the BHPG Dan Sutton said that the community needed to be aware of the inconsistencies that are in the Environmental Impact Statement and how they're likely to impact residents.
One of the selling points of the mine are the economic benefits that Regis Resources have been promoting and Mr Sutton says that there is no clarification in the EIS of the number of jobs being created.
"They talk of peak jobs of 710 and around an average of 500 during the construction period but there is no justification for where those jobs are and how they're getting to those numbers. It appears that Regis are just saying numbers that they like," he said.
"The EIS states that 89 jobs will be created when it's running but also states that 14 of those will go to new employees and the rest will come from existing employment."
"It would appear that Bathurst and Orange will benefit more than Blayney will from this gold mine."
On a macro level Mr Sutton says that the benefit to the NSW economy is also negligible.
"There is a net benefit of approximately $143 million to the NSW economy and that's less than 0.025 of the state's GDP, less than a quarter of a per cent of the GDP of NSW and they're selling it like it's the greatest thing to the economy," he said.
"Most of that money will go to their shareholders of which seventy one per cent aren't even Australian. The remainder are large Australian corporations."
"If it's not going to ordinary Australians it's certainly not going to the residents of Blayney and King's Plains."
Mr Sutton said that the meeting on Tuesday night will include details on how residents can make a submission.