ALKANE Resources will not be surprised if there is out-of-region "interest" in its $1 billion plan to mine rare minerals at Toongi, 25 kilometres south of Dubbo.
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The development application and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Dubbo Zirconia Project (DZP) went on public exhibition yesterday.
The NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure has told of where they can be inspected, including Dubbo's Civic Administration Building.
Submissions will be accepted across two months in deference to the level of detail in the EIS that includes 14 separate areas of study.
Alkane Resources agreed to the exhibition period running until November 18 in order to give people time to digest the vast amount of information on offer.
Yesterday managing director Ian Chalmers encouraged anyone with a question or concern to lodge a submission or talk to Alkane Resources staff, including Dubbo-based NSW general manager Mike Sutherland.
"A submission can be something as simple as a letter saying 'We don't understand this. Could the company explain further?
"We're more than happy to do that. We would rather go into it with a genuine understanding that the project is good for the region."
Mr Chalmers said the company had considered the possibility of people out of the region having a say.
"To be very frank, we think we might get, what's the word, interest, from outside the region, like Sydney or somewhere like that," he said.
"You get some movements that are just anti-mining. It doesn't matter what they are or how well the project is documented and minimised its impacts.You will still have people who will have interest."
The department announced the public exhibition period with the advice that the State Significant Development had the "potential to make Dubbo a major world supplier of the rare minerals zirconium, niobium, hafnium and tantalum".
Alkane Resources estimates it will need to spend between $700 million and $1 billion building an open-cut mine and associated infrastructure, including pipelines for gas and water and a rail loading facility.
"We still have to put all the financing in place," Mr Chalmers said yesterday.
The EIS is based on an initial 20-year mine life, even though the Toongi rare minerals resource can support "an open-cut operation for 70 to 80 years, no problem".
In the 20 years the company estimates the DZP will generate gross earnings of $5.4 billion.
Up to 650 jobs would be filled in the construction and production phases of the mine, with 85 per cent of workers to come from Dubbo and surrounding communities.
About A$40 million would be injected annually into the "local" economy in wages and other utilities.