![](https://aubook.com.au/file/pic/foxfeedspro/2017/02/d17171f0a5873ccfc3ebea151b249d06.png)
In short:
A group of central west NSW residents have lodged a complaint with ASIC against a planned mining project.
The group claims the mine has been misleading investors in marketing communications.
What's next?
ASIC has been asked to respond to the complaint in two weeks.
New South Wales residents opposed to a mine development in the state's central west have filed a complaint with corporate regulator alleging "misleading and deceptive conduct".
The Mudgee Regional Health Alliance lodged the complaint against Bowdens Silver mine with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) on Monday over its communications with investors about the other metals that would be mined at the site.
The complaint alleges the mine has downplayed the zinc and lead extraction aspects of the project, as well as community opposition.
"My clients are concerned that investors who are looking at putting money in the Bowdens Silver project are aware it's more than just a silver mine," laywer representing the alliance, Elaine Johnson, said.
"It [also features] lead, that is of huge concern to the local community."
Under the NSW Corporations Act, it is a criminal offence to engage in misleading and deceptive conduct in relation to financial products.
Ms Johnson has requested ASIC respond to the complaint within two weeks.
Bowdens Silver said on Tuesday it was unaware an ASIC complaint had been lodged against it.
An Independent Planning Commission hearing last year heard the company was determined to develop a substantial new industry with high paying jobs that would enable people to live locally, raise their families and spend locally.
Health concerns
Yet to break ground, the Bowdens Silver mine site is in in the agricultural hamlet of Lue, south-east of Mudgee.
Community members have previously expressed health concerns associated with the open-cut mine, which would be located two kilometres from Lue Public School.
There have also been objections to it being positioned amid prime agricultural land.
A condition of its state approval required the company to offer voluntary blood tests to community members concerned about lead levels.
The complaint alleges the mine's planned extraction of zinc and lead has been downplayed "in order to shield investors from the reality of the project".
It says the project documentation that went before the Independent Planning Commission uses the name "Bowdens Silver" in the title.
"As a result of the naming of the project, all communications with investors focus on the mine as a silver mine, leaving out or heavily minimising references to zinc and lead," it reads.
It also challenged the company's claim it had widespread support for the project and that any opposition was activism.
"We are seeing these claims that the community of concern is some small group of activists," The Greens MP Sue Higginson said.
"That is just not true, this is a large part of the entire community.
"It is really important that the corporate regulator understands that, and this corporation is telling the truth about the project it has on the table."
Ms Higginson, who has been supporting the community in its opposition to the development, said they had been "ridden roughshod" by the corporation and the planning system.
"From day one, [the community] feel that the truth and the facts around this project have been muddied," she said.
"This idea about seeking corporate compliance is a very important move in the public interest."
More hurdles
The mine was approved by an Independent Planning Commission hearing in 2023, with the commission satisfied the project could meet all relevant requirements for protecting human health.
The validity of that approval was challenged in the NSW Court of Appeal on Monday by another community group, with the outcome due in a matter of weeks.
Due to the project's size and potential impact, it also requires federal approval by Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek.
Ms Higginson said she wrote to the minister on Monday asking that she defer any final decision until both challenges had played out.
"It's very important that we allow these legitimate processes to be seen all the way to the end," she said.