Response to the Gippsland Times on Dust Issues Raised by Dr Jane Greacen

Community health and environmental protection are at the core of how GCM plans to operate, and we take these matters seriously.

We understand that people are concerned, especially when it comes to air quality, dust, and the long-term health of their families. That’s why the Fingerboards Project is undergoing a significant rescoping and redesign to reduce environmental impacts, particularly in relation to dust.

These changes have not been taken into account by Dr Greacen and MFG. Many of the changes GCM has already made to the old 2021 project are specifically aimed at reducing dust from operations, and we would welcome the opportunity to brief Dr Greacen and MFG on the rescoped project.

These changes include reducing the scale of mining activities, changing the size of the open voids, the way they are created and the length of time they are open, reducing truck movements, and constructing covered storage areas.  

These initial changes that GCM announced in March 2025 contribute to a project that produces significantly less dust.  For example:

• Reducing the scale of the mining by 40%, spread across two mining locations to reduce the dust generated at any one location, at any one time.

• Reducing the size of the mining voids and filling them within 12 months, with land rehabilitation beginning immediately after filling.

• Introducing a new method of mining called ‘in pit dozer push’ that will reduce dust generated from overburden removal and from on-surface trucks.

• We are also reducing the risk of airborne dust travelling as a result of wind by:

  • Establishing storage sheds for the bulk concentrate.

  • Increasing the use of dust suppressant measures, which will be tested as part of the demonstration pit trials

  • Using a changed rehabilitation strategy to accelerate ground cover establishment and the return of the land to agricultural use and native grass.

  • Increased the buffer zone to significantly reduce the likelihood of any residual dust reaching Lindenow Valley.

We expect these measures will dramatically reduce dust, and quantifying the impact of these proposed mitigation measures is now the subject of detailed assessments and studies.  This includes plans for a demonstration pit in early 2026 to ensure our dust modelling and rehabilitation strategy is tested in situ

• As these studies, which will be conducted by third-party experts, are completed, we will share the results with the community. 

• GCM expects to be able to quantify the reduction in the amount of dust generated and any dust impacts as part of these studies. 

• GCM also expects that air quality monitoring, which will be made available to the public and regular independent testing by a trusted third party and regulatory oversight, will form part of the final rescoped project. 

The claims of radiation raised by Dr Greacen and MFG are not accurate and refer to a type of mineral sands processing that is not going to occur at Fingerboards.

• Some of the claims and inferences made in the release are inaccurate and unnecessarily alarming. For example, Fingerboards is not a uranium or thorium mine.

• The final processing of minerals will not occur near Glenaladale. The separation and refining of rare earths will take place at licensed facilities in Western Australia or the Northern Territory, not on site. This further reduces any potential risk of harmful exposures.

• To provide independent monitoring against the baseline levels at Fingerboards, the Victorian Department of Health has installed its own monitoring stations across the site.

• It is only during final processing, in Western Australia and the Northern Territory, almost 4,000km from East Gippsland, that any radiation from NORM would be concentrated enough to be classified as Radioactive Material (Class 7). 

In Western Australia and the Northern Territory, specific measures are in place to manage these outcomes at these processing locations, which are subject to strict regulatory oversight from the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA).