Murray Zircon halts Mallee mineral sands mining on government orders

2024-02-09

Dec. 8, 2023 - Murray Zircon has temporarily stopped work on a mineral sands mine in South Australia's Mallee following a state government direction after farmers complained of environmental breaches to their lease agreement.

The Chinese-owned company started production at Mercunda, about 130 kilometres east of Adelaide, in July this year just down the road from a previous mining site at Mindarie.

The Heidrich family, who have owned the land since 1994, have been working with a lawyer for about 20 years and initially opposed the mine on their property. 

The site was chosen because it is part of the Murray-Darling Basin, once an inland sea, and is full of natural beach sands containing minerals like zircon, rutile, and ilmenite.

The sands are processed to separate the heavy minerals which can be used for a wide range of products including ceramics, food, pharmaceuticals, electronics, and aviation equipment.

Conditions breached

Farmer Kevin Heidrich never wanted mining on his grain and livestock farm at Galga.

But after decades of fighting he said he now has a pit on his property that would not look out of place in the Pilbara.

"This has been going since I was 39 [years of age] when they started drilling down the road," he said.

"I'm 64 now and the agreement we've got with them means they could be for another eight or 10 [years].

"So that makes me an old man by the time they're out of here."

Following numerous complaints from the Heidrich family about environmental breaches to the agreement the state Department of Energy and Mining (DEM) last week issued a stop work notice to Murray Zircon.

The department asked the company to submit a change in operations after creating larger stockpiles of overburden, or waste, than approved.

State director of minerals Paul De Iono said in a letter to Murray Zircon that its operations had exceeded what it was approved to do.

Mr Heidrich is concerned the breaches have gone beyond the compensation he was paid for mining activities and could compromise the investment he has put into improving the land.

"The worry is if they are in breach of that, are they going to do the rehab properly?" he said. 

"If it [the farm] doesn't come back and produce the way it [used] to it won't be good at all."

His son Nathan has been working their land since he was 14 years old and wants to pass the farm on to future generations.

"I plan to farm here until they put me in a box," he said.

"I've got three kids so I'm hoping they will all come home to farm."

Mr Heidrich said farmers across the border in Victoria's Wimmera region were also facing a similar battle.

"Farmers are talking about early next year coming over and having a visit, having a talk to us about it," he said.

Mining and farming tensions

Farming industry groups are also concerned about the dispute.

Grain Producers South Australia chief executive Brad Perry said he hoped to have a briefing as soon as possible with DEM about the incident.

"We need to make sure that this is thoroughly investigated and these concerns are taken very seriously," Mr Perry said.

"At the end of the day we are going to see more competing land uses."

A spokesperson for Murray Zircon said in a statement that the company had ceased mining and processing operations at the Mercunda site on Wednesday afternoon.

Any works now would only be rehabilitation, maintenance, and transport of product.

"The company is confident that it can achieve the directions required from DEM within the 28-day period," the company said.

"There are no direct employment impacts associated with this decision. However, relevant contractors and suppliers have also been advised of the cessation."