The Independent Planning Commission is taking submissions to the McPhillamy's mine proposal until Wednesday February 15. 

Watch the video below to learn more about this gold mine proposal:

The Belubula Headwaters Protection Group have developed an easy to use submission guide to help you with your submission.

Download the submission guide as a pdf here or continue reading below.

The following is a guide on how to make a written submission to the IPC for their decision on the McPhillamys Gold Mine:

Independent Planning Commission Submission Page

Ensure the “McPhillamys Gold Project” is the case listed under “Which proposed development do you wish to provide a submission on?”

You will need to select the options that best apply to you, and remember to select that you object to the project.

You can either type directly into a text box for your submission, or attach files in either PDF, DOCX, JPG, or XLS format, up to 20MB in size.

Elect whether you’d like your name withheld (anonymous) or not, fill in your details, tick the declaration box and click submit.

Guide to your written submission

• Keep your submission factual and refer to the DPE referral and reports.
• Ensure you recommend conditions, even to the point of rewording, crossing out or using the formatting of the DPE recommendations. We want it to be really simple for the IPC to add/adjust conditions if they decide to approve the mine.
• Remember that the IPC are assessing the DPE assessment, the DPE have completed a whole of Government assessment and the IPC role is to ensure this has taken place correctly and adequately to reach their recommendations.

Some general issues that remain outstanding after DPE assessment as a guide to help your train of thought:

• Any person located downstream of the mine site should be worried that if the Tailings Dam fails, its entire contents will follow the flow of the Belubula River. The damage to the ecosystems that rely on this river and the fact it will then end up in Carcoar Dam and the Lachlan River is a risk that cannot be taken.
• You could be a resident in Bathurst and be concerned that with the pipeline of toxic water going under several waterways between Lithgow and Bathurst (including the Macquarie), could rupture or leak into the waterways, causing irreparable damage to aquatic ecosystems.
• You may be concerned about the listing of koalas as now endangered since February this year, and that there will be the destruction of Koala and other native wildlife habitat and the fact that the mine will be living next door to a well know koala travelling route. And that koalas have been spotted on the site and will now be displaced.
• You may be upset by the fact that White Box-Yellow Box-Blakely's Red Gum Grassy Woodland and Derived Native Grassland is listed as a critically endangered ecological community under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, and this is has been proven that it is on the site of the proposed open cut pit, and will be destroyed. 
• You may be a nearby neighbour who raised concerns in your original submission about not being consulted by the proponent. The DPE may have spoken to you once in the 2+ year assessment period (or not at all) and the DPE are claiming they have adequately consulted with all stakeholders. If this is the case, it would be effective to include a list of the date/s that they did speak with you and describe your concerns which remain unresolved. This demonstrates whether stakeholder/direct neighbour engagement by DPE assessment was inadequate.
• The proponent has failed to acknowledge the light and visual intrusion for residents along Guyong Rd and Vittoria Rd and the DPE has failed to include it in their assessment and recommendations for mitigation for neighbours. If approved, it should be a condition that an appropriate visual screening plan (which allows for but is not limited to mature native trees) is developed and implemented with all privately owned residents within a 2km radius of the mine site boundary.
• You may live in town and be renting, and concerned that the current housing shortage will be intensified by mine workers on higher average wages. This may inflate local living costs and force existing long term residents out of the community.
• You may run a small business and already be struggling for staff, concerned about the consequences for the local workforce. 
• A downstream water user of the Belubula River may be concerned that the permanent destruction of the springs which create the Belubula River will reduce flow into Carcoar Dam. This could mean less water availability and a degradation in the quality of the water.
• You may have children/ grandchildren and cannot bear the thought of the legacy this mine will leave in terms of irreversible environmental damage in this area.
• You may be worried about food security and the destruction of over 8000 acres of prime agricultural grazing land that will be affected forever and unable to be used to full capacity ever again.

Click here to go to the Independent Planning Commission Submission Page