WOODVALE residents are concerned a mining company may not be able to raise the $100 million needed to transform a mine's disused evaporation ponds into a solar plant.
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GBM Gold has announced plans to transform Woodvale's evaporation ponds into a 60w solar plant to "meet the energy needs of thousands of Bendigo homes".
The ponds once stored water pumped from mine workings that absorbed salts and other heavy metals from the surrounding rock and the community has long haboured fears about arsenic at the site.
GBM Gold's soil testing and other tests showed the site was safe for human contact, and the company still planned to cap contaminants through a rehabilitation plan, CEO John Harrison said.
The solar plant looked "good on paper" resident Gary Davis said, but he had concerns about how the company would pay to environmentally rehabilitate the site.
GBM Gold was in discussions with potential partners to help fund it and was "very confident" the funds would come, Mr Harrison said.
The company suspended trading on the Australian Stock Exchange last October after several delays and unsuccessful attempts sourcing money to repay $3.5 million in loans to previous owners Unity Mining.
Unity had loaned the money to GBM Gold to cover environmental rehabilitation bonds at Bendigo sites including Woodvale.
Trading is still suspended, according to the ASX website, but GBM Gold plans to float new shares in June to pay back loans and fund future ventures.
Documents given to the ASX by GBM Gold earlier this month state that "without raising funds to pay Unity Mining's debt the company will be insolvent".
The fund will be underwritten by Hong Kong based company Nex Kiwi Holdings Limited.
Woodvale Progress Association president Brendan Bartlett said his group would meet next week and form a position on the solar plant.
He was concerned the plan could further delay rehabilitation of the ponds, which GBM Gold had agreed to do in 2016 within two years.
"Whilst we are open to ideas that may achieve, ultimately, a better environmental outcome for Woodvale, things also need to progress in a timely fashion," he said.
The proposal still needs to go through the City of Greater Bendigo's planning processes and, if everything goes to plan, could be completed within two years.
The company will need approval from state mining regulator Earth Resources to vary its existing rehabilitation plan, which envisions the land being transformed for agricultural use.
A 2018 report for the Environmental Protection Authority found that despite the presence of arsenic, the land could be reused for agriculture over time.
Retired Woodvale farmer Ken Stent has reservations about any plans to return the land to farming.
"If it was rehabilitated as agricultural land I would not buy it,' he said.
Mr Stent believes a solar plant is a marvelous idea - as long as there was money to pay for it.
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