Meeting on mining permits

CONCERN over mining exploration permits over the Southern Downs and Granite Belt regions is expected to draw a strong crowd to a public meeting tomorrow afternoon at the Warwick Cowboys clubhouse.

Toowoomba-based lobby group The Toowoomba Coal Mine Action Group is one of a number of community-based organisations which have been formed in recent months in response to coal and other mining companies seeking to search for deposits on prime farming land on the Darling Downs.

Tomorrow’s forum at the Warwick Cowboys Clubhouse aims to brief landowners about the aims of the Toowoomba Coal Mine Action Group and exploration permits current for the Warwick and Stanthorpe areas.

Spokeswoman Jill Wiltshire told the Daily News last week her group would deliver a “call to arms” for farmers and landowners worried about the future of their productive holdings.

She said the Toowoomba Coal Mine Action Group was established in response to news that an exploration permit for coal had been approved for the area around Gowrie Junction and Kingsthorpe, close to Toowoomba.

A range of exploratory permits for coal are in place across the Warwick and Stanthorpe areas held by mining exploration companies on the search for new coal sources, both for coal-fired power generation and coal seam gas extraction. The permits do not confer mining rights but mining companies can conduct exploratory digs at will.