Company begins mining push across Coffs/Clarence

Applications for exploration licences covering almost 400 square kilometres lodged with District Court

Two exploration licence applications have been submitted by Christopher Wilson Investments for mining in the Coffs/Clarence region. One is north west of Coffs Harbour on either side of the Orara Way and River, the other is south east of Grafton close to the Nymboida river.

A QUEENSLAND company has taken steps to investigate the viability of mining in the Coffs Harbour and Clarence Valley regions.

Christopher Wilson Investments Pty Ltd has lodged an exploration licence application with the Department of Planning Industry and Environment covering 391 square kilometres of land near Coffs Harbour, Grafton and Tenterfield.

Application 6060 covers an area of 198 square kilometres approximately 10kms north west of Coffs Harbour. The area touted for exploration cuts across the Orara River in between Coramba and Nana Glen and runs west in line with the Eastern Dorrigo way.

Licence 6068 covers an area of 28 square kilometres in a region 25 kilometres south west of Grafton close to the Nymboida river and on the north side of the Armidale Rd.

Licence 6061 covers an area of 165.5 square kilometres 45 km north east of Tenterfield running adjacent to Paddys Flat Road and the Clarence River from south side of the Bruxner Highway.

An exploration licence gives the holder the exclusive right to explore for specified mineral groups within the exploration licence area, during the term of the licence, which can be anywhere from one to six years.

The purpose of exploration is to locate areas where mineral resources may be present, to establish the quality and quantity of those resources and to investigate the viability of extracting the resource.

There is a long history on mining in the region and this photo shows the construction of the tramway at Cangai Copper Mine. Opened in 1911, the tramway was used to bring firewood into the smelters to keep the furnaces going.

CWI has indicated all three licences relate to the search for Group 1 (metallic minerals).

The applications were lodged on August 12 and according to the NSW Government's Titles Management System are slated to be processed by mid-October.

The company also lodged seven other exploration licence applications with the NSW District Court, in regions listed as Orange, Armidale and Sydney.

However, its application for the area northwest of Coffs Harbour is by far the largest.

Little is known about the Brisbane-based company although according to the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, Dr Christopher Wilson, a director and sole shareholder is based in the United Kingdom.

There has been long history of mining in the region dating back to the late 1800s with one of the most well known being the Cangai copper mine in the upper Clarence Region.

There have a number of companies looking to revisit mining in recent years, such as Centius Gold surveying areas on the Dorrigo Plateau in 2011 and more recently Castillo Copper has been heading efforts to re-establish copper mining around Cangai.

However, the recent efforts have not gone unnoticed with those in the community concerned about the effect mining could have on the environment, including the region's many rivers.

Those concerns were only heightened after subsidiaries of Castillo Copper were forced to pay $91,000 over alleged breaches of the mining act at Cangai which included unauthorised drilling, not disposing of drilling waste and failing to prevent erosion and chemical spillages.

Marte Rampe, listed as a contact on the public notice of the application, has been contacted for comment.