Opal miners across the Lightning Ridge region, including the Glengarry, Grawin and Sheepyards areas, as well as those in the White Cliffs region have been slapped with what they say are devastating consequences due to bureaucratic bungling.
At least 390 local miners turned out for an Information Session called by Mining Exploration and Geoscience (MEG) at the Lighting Ridge Bowling Club on Tuesday 30 May.
The session was organised as news spread that thousands of mining leases had been deemed invalid and a ‘stop work’ order was issued, leaving almost 900 local opal miners out of work.
The MEG is part of the Department of Regional NSW, the central agency for regional issues in the state, and part of their role is to assess and determine applications for mining exploration and extraction…