Farmers are waiting for a guarantee that their groundwater has not been compromised a month after extraction stopped at one of Australia's largest gold mines in central western New South Wales.
Newcrest Mining halted underground operations at its Cadia Gold Mine near Orange and evacuated the area because of an unstable ventilation shaft.
The air vent intersected an aquifer which then started pouring water into the hole.
A group of landholders, who live several kilometres away at Blayney, has been keeping a close eye on the fallout.
That is because another company, Regis Resources, wants to build the McPhillamys open cut gold mine on several thousand hectares at Kings Plains on the edge of town.
"Although the type of mining may be different, the cause of the problem for Cadia was that they weren't able to predict or model or anticipate this groundwater aquifer," Belubula Headwater Protection Group member Daniel Sutton said.
"What's happened over at Cadia has just emphasised the fact that you can't predict groundwater movement, as much as experts would like to say that they can."
A spokesperson for Regis Resources denied the incident at Cadia could be repeated at McPhillamys because they were two different types of mines.
"McPhillamys will be a zero-discharge site, which means mine-affected water will be contained on site and won't enter the Belubula River or surrounding environment," the spokesperson said.
"The project will not affect the quality or amount of groundwater available to surrounding landowners."
So far, the level of one bore has dropped and the mine is monitoring several others in the vicinity.
Regis Resources' tailings dam, which holds mining by-product, is set to be built at the mouth of the Belubula River.
Mr Sutton said there were several springs underneath where the storage facility would be built, and the company had promised to plug them to stop any leakage.
"Honestly the only thing they can do is move their tailings dam somewhere else where there is no groundwater impacts, where there are no springs whatsoever underneath, where it's not the beginning of a river or a water source," Mr Sutton said.
Water woes
Blayney farmers have also expressed their frustration at the length of time it has taken for the McPhillamys project to be assessed.
The company lodged its response to submissions with the NSW Department of Planning in September 2020.
Mr Sutton said landholders were told the project would be referred to the Independent Planning Commission for consideration in March 2022.
Instead, the planning department has asked for more information from Regis Resources to satisfy its queries about surface water licensing.
A spokesperson for the company said the key issues related to administration, not impact.
Regis Resources says while the time frame for assessment is up to the government, it hopes it will be finalised by the end of the year.
