$14m loan to save asbestos mine
THE Fraser cabinet approved a $1.4 million loan to save Australia's only remaining asbestos mine at Woodsreef in NSW in October 1978 in the hope that its owner could sell more than 90,000 tonnes of the material to Southeast Asian customers.
THE Fraser cabinet approved a $1.4 million loan to save Australia's only remaining asbestos mine at Woodsreef in NSW in October 1978 in the hope that its owner could sell more than 90,000 tonnes of the material to Southeast Asian customers.
The West Australian government had announced plans to abandon the asbestos mining town of Wittenoom, where 50 asbestos-related deaths had already been reported.
But the cabinet papers show the Fraser government's intervention was prompted by concerns about job losses in the NSW northern tablelands town of Barraba.
The government agreed to advance the loan in instalments over 15 months provided the mine's owner, Chrysotile Corporate, reported back in three months on the success of a sales drive to secure 90,000 tonnes of orders from Southeast Asia.
A minute dated October 19, 1978, says the full terms of the loan were to be kept confidential so as not to hinder the sales drive.
The mine rescue package also involved assistance of $3.4million, plus waived taxes, from the NSW government and the Commercial Bank of Australia.
The mine continued operating until 1983, producing a total of about 500,000 tonnes of chrysotile, or white asbestos.
But last year it sparked controversy as residents of the Barraba community voiced their concerns about exposure to asbestos dust from the abandoned mine.
NSW Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald told parliament in November that the cost of rehabilitating the mine was estimated to exceed $100 million. The Government had already spent $1.1 million in rehabilitation and safety works at the site.
Mr Macdonald played down immediate risks to residents of Barraba. A 1997 study rated the risks posed by airborne asbestos as "not considered significant", he told NSW parliament.
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