This Friday (16 August) the Court of Appeal will hand down its judgement regarding Silver Mines’ (ASX:SVL) Bowdens Silver Project in New South Wales.
On 14 March 2024, Silver Mines announced its subsidiary Bowdens Silver had successfully defended the proceedings begun by activist group Bingman Catchment Landcare Group Incorporated in the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales.
The action was against the state government’s Independent Planning Commission (IPC) and Bowdens Silver, challenging the development consent for the project approved by the IPC, during April 2023.
New South Wales’ Land and Environment Court dismissed those proceedings.
Subsequent to this decision, Bingman filed an appeal in the Court of Appeal and a hearing was held on 22 July 2024.
Silver Mines, which has a market capitalisation of $226.20 million, says it is looking forward to a speedy resolution of the appeal, and will update the market once the Court of Appeal has made its decision.
In March, Managing Director Jonathan Battershill said these proceedings did not challenge any environmental or other impacts of the operations associated with the Bowdens Silver Project.
“The proceedings challenged whether the IPC adequately considered matters relating to the construction and location of a powerline which may be required to power the mine site,” Battershill said.
“Silver Mines has a number of options to power the site, and we were not limited to this one option. We strongly believe Silver Mines has delivered a technically reliable and environmentally responsible project.”
The Bowdens Silver Project lies in central New South Wales and is considered among the “largest” undeveloped silver deposits in Australia and one of the “largest” globally with a substantial resource.
Silver Mines is an Australian silver-focused explorer that owns the Barabolar and Bowdens Silver projects, which covers a 2,007km2 area.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Unsplash
