MANTLE Mining is drilling on borehole MBM05 on land owned by Genetics Australia, the country’s largest artificial cattle breeding supplier.
The company owns a herd of 650 bulls on 750 hectares around Parwan and Bacchus Marsh.
Chief executive Chris Jones said Genetics Australia was duty-bound to give Mantle access, but the mining company had so far been transparent and considerate.
“There is a pretty strict set of regulations they have to be compliant with,” he said.
Mr Jones said if significant quantities of coal were found he expected the state government to be interested.
“Different states are rich in different resources and Victoria has coal. But at a local level, I would expect all impacts would be fully assessed and [there would be] a thorough community consultation. Large quantities of coal in Bacchus Marsh would be no surprise, given the area’s history, but the impact of mining would need to be determined.”
There are four holes left in Mantle’s 15-hole drilling program.
