The Minister for Planning has appointed a joint Inquiry and Advisory Committee, known as the Fingerboards Mineral Sands Project Inquiry and Advisory Committee (IAC) to consider and advise on the Environment Effects Statement (EES), Works Approval Application (WAA), the draft Planning Scheme Amendment (PSA) affecting the East Gippsland Planning Scheme and public submissions received on the proposed Fingerboards Mineral Sands Project.

The work and scope of the IAC is guided by the Terms of Reference that have been approved by the Minister for Planning. The Terms of Reference can be found in the Document Library on the right hand side of this page.

To develop the Fingerboards Mineral Sands Project (the Project) which has an approximate area of 1,675 hectares and is located approximately 20 kilometres north-west of Bairnsdale in East Gippsland, Victoria.

The proposal includes:

• the development of a mineral sands mine
• two mining unit plants
• wet concentrator plant (comprising mineral separation processing and tailings thickening and disposal plant)
• water supply infrastructure (inside and outside of the mining licence)
• power supply infrastructure (inside and outside of the mining licence)
• tailings storage facility
• additional site facilities, such as a site office, warehouse, workshop, loading facilities and fuel storage
• new rail siding/ roads/ diversions/ intersections etc (outside of the mining licence).

The proposed mining methods involve open pit mining to extract approximately 170 million tonnes of ore over a projected mine life of 20 years to produce approximately 8 Mt of mineral concentrate. Mine products are proposed to be transported via road or by rail for export overseas.

The mining project would require up to 9000 kilovolt-ampere (kVA) hours of power likely to be supplied from the electricity grid and annual water requirements of approximately 3 gigalitres.

The Proponent is Kalbar Operations Pty Ltd (Kalbar).

You may inspect the EES, draft Planning Scheme Amendment and Works Approval Application and any related documents free of charge on the Kalbar Fingerboards Mineral Sands Project webpage.

The Project will be on public exhibition for 40 business days between Thursday 3 September and 5.00pm on Thursday 29 October 2020.

You are invited to make a submission to the IAC during this time. Submissions should be made on the online submission form below and must be received by 5.00pm on Thursday 29 October 2020.

Submissions may address any matter the submitter considers relevant, including whether the Proposal is supported or objected or any recommended changes. Submissions must relate to information and topics covered in the EES, WAA and the draft PSA.

When making your submission you can nominate to be heard at the IAC’s public hearing. If you make a submission, you will be notified about the timing and location of the Hearing after the exhibition period has closed.

Anyone seeking to be heard at the public hearing must submit a written submission and indicate on the submission form that they would like to be heard at the hearing.

The IAC will hold a Directions Hearing on Friday 13 November 2020. Further information about the Directions Hearing arrangements, including venue and time, will be published when determined.

The purpose of the Directions Hearing is to:

• consider any preliminary or procedural issues and give directions about the conduct of the Hearing including the exchange of any expert witness reports
• make arrangements for the Hearing, including the Timetable and Hearing venue
• answer any questions people may have about the Hearing.

The Public Hearing will be held in the week commencing Monday 7 December 2020 and run for four to six weeks (if required). A timetable for the Public Hearing will be published after the Directions Hearing.

The purpose of the Public Hearing is to give people an opportunity to speak in support of their written submission. The Public Hearing is open for anyone to watch.

Note the IAC will not sit between Monday 21 December 2020 to mid to late January 2021.

Please note that your submission will be treated as a public document in accordance with the Privacy Collection Statement (which can be accessed through Document Library) which may include provisions to other parties and display in the Hearing. You should not include any other personal information in the body of your submission, such as physical addresses, email address and phone details, unless that information can be made publicly available. You can request access to your personal information held by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning by contacting the Freedom of Information Unit on (03) 9637 8186 or FOI.unit@delwp.vic.gov.au.

You are invited to make a submission to the IAC on the Project. Submissions are invited between Thursday 3 September and 5.00pm on Thursday 29 October 2020 and should be lodged using the submission form below.

Each submission is a public document and will be treated as a submission in response to all the exhibited documents, so only one submission addressing all of your views about the Project is needed.

You must read the Privacy Collection Statement provided below prior to lodging your submission.

You must make a written submission if you wish to make a presentation at the Public Hearing.

Please contact Planning Panels Victoria at 136 186 if you need to make a hard-copy submission or have issues lodging your submission on the form below. Please note that electronic submissions are preferred.