Exploration licence on local land

A WESTERN Australian company has lodged an application to explore land in the Swan Hill region for mineral sands deposits.

A section of land 20km south of Swan Hill taking in the outskirts of Lake Boga and the township of Lalbert, will be investigated over the next two years if the application for an exploration licence is granted by the Victorian Government.

The application was lodged by Perth-based company VHM Exploration on August 8 and covers 420 square kilometres of farmland, between Goschen, Lake Boga and Lalbert.

The licence would enable “low-impact field exploration” to take place in the area, “with minimal impact on the community and environment” predicted in the first two years of investigation.

The company was formed last month by two Western Australian geologists who have been looking into public data on the Murray Basin region.

VHM Exploration director Jason Froud said they believed they had enough evidence to warrant further exploration of the area for mineral sands.

He said data from mining exploration undertaken in the 1990s indicated the existence of heavy mineral sands including ilmenite and zircon.

“We have been going through some of the public domain information… there has been some historic work done there,” Mr Froud said.

“[Past investigations] intersected mineral sand there and then didn’t do any more follow-up work.

“Since that work was done a number of years ago, technology has moved on and we think there might be some deposits there.”

Mr Froud said minimal impacts were expected on landholders in the area.

Most information gathering will be through public records and any ground examination is expected to take place on public roads.

“Most of our exploration can take place without access to farmland,” he said.

Comments or objections must be sent in writing to the DSDBI Earth Resources Tenements manager at GPO Box 4509, Melbourne, Victoria, 3001.

For the full story, pick up a copy of Friday’s Guardian (August 29).