Australia: Smelter Plan a Threat to Forests
2/19/00
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Title: Smelter plan threat to forests
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
Status: Copyright 2000, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: February 19, 2000
Byline: James Woodford
Threatened wildlife in two of the last great patches of forest in
north-west NSW are threatened by a plan to turn timber into charcoal
to power a silicon smelter, a confidential report has warned.
A joint venture project between two Perth-based companies, Portman
Mining Ltd and Doral Mineral Industries Ltd, is proposing to
construct a $100 million silicon smelter at Lithgow. If approved it
is expected that the plant will employ more than 100 staff and
produce 30,000 tonnes of high-grade silicon for more than 40 years.
However, in order to produce the silicon from quartz obtained from
Cowra, the plant will need to burn annually 30,000 tonnes of
charcoal, which the company wants to obtain from high-quality
ironbark timber sourced from the Pilliga, north of Coonabarabran, and
Goonoo forests north of Dubbo.
To produce 30,000 tonnes of charcoal requires 150,000 tonnes of
timber. The smelter would also require 30,000 tonnes of woodchips
obtained from around Lithgow each year.
The issue has been the subject of intense lobbying at a ministerial
level because of the immense environmental sensitivity of the forests
that would need to be harvested to fuel the smelter. It is also
extremely politically sensitive because of the fact that Lithgow is
in the marginal and economically depressed seat of Bathurst.
The environmental credibility of both the Environment Minister, Mr
Debus, and the Premier, Mr Carr, is at stake on the issue because
Pilliga and Goonoo are regarded as among the most significant
woodlands in the State. Only 2.6 per cent of the region in which the
forests grow is protected in nature reserves.
A report prepared by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service but
which was leaked by another agency details the results of a survey of
the Pilliga and Goonoo. The document reveals that the region proposed
for harvesting contains 22 threatened species.
The authors warn it is "under stress and its biodiversity has and
will continue to decline, if past practices are maintained".
The NPWS also warns that the time given for them to prepare the
report was insufficient.
"This bio-region has already experienced high levels of species
decline, with 14 extinct mammals, and 100 species currently found to
be regionally significant (in terms of species decline), 37 of which
were detected during this survey. This is largely a result of
widespread land clearing, agricultural and forestry practices," the
report says.
The executive director of the NSW Nature Conservation Council, Ms
Kathryn Ridge, said western woodlands such as Pilliga and Goonoo were
"under-reserved, largely unknown and definitely under threat by the
proposed charcoal plant".
"Burning Pilliga and Goonoo, the last remaining refuge for these
threatened species to provide a short-term profit for a private
enterprise is public theft," she said.
A spokeswoman for Mr Debus said negotiations about the project
between government agencies would begin next week.
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