Protect Karangahake had a busy day on the mountain on Saturday 11th June, with about 15 members helping out with the monthly weed-busting. After a couple of hours work we managed to create a huge pile of weeds, focusing on the area behind the popular picnic pagoda on the way to Scotsman’s Gully track.
At 11 our numbers were swelled with the arrival of more supporters and we could demonstrate what New Talisman are proposing to do in numbers comprehensible by the average person in the street. Everyday, New Talisman want to mine two tonnes of rock per hour – that’s the same weight as 27 people and after all that effort the amount of gold extracted would make a 1 cm cube. Along with the gold is the arsenic, lead, mercury and because the rock is so finely crushed it can produce acid leachate if in contact with water.
We based our conversion on the 20,000 cubic metres of rock that New Talisman often reports that it has consent to remove from the mountain. We also found the much reported amount of gold per tonne that the Dubbo mine yielded in the past and is in the ball park of what New Talisman believe is in the areas they want to mine. (and yes, the child in the front is holding a small cube of fake gold).
Protect Karangahake 