{"id":444013,"date":"2026-01-29T00:23:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T00:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/444013\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T00:23:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T00:23:12","slug":"talison-lithium-mine-blasts-in-regional-wa-ignite-calls-for-home-buyback-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/444013\/","title":{"rendered":"Talison lithium mine blasts in regional WA ignite calls for home buyback scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"

Home owners living beside the world’s biggest hard-rock lithium mine in Western Australia’s South West region are calling on the miner to buy out their homes or offer relocation.<\/p>\n

Many locals in the historical mining town of Greenbushes, 240 kilometres south of Perth, have struggled to coexist with the mine in recent years because of regular blasting, dust and noise pollution.<\/p>\n

The Greenbushes mine \u2014 owned by the Sino-American company Talison Lithium \u2014 provides nearly 20 per cent of the world’s hard-rock lithium supply, which is crucial to the energy transition.<\/p>\n

Trevor Stallard has lived in Greenbushes for 39 years, and he spent 15 of them working at the lithium mine.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Trevor Stallard says locals feel trapped by a comparatively sluggish property market in the town. (ABC South West WA: Jon Daly)<\/p>\n

The retired miner has decided that enough is enough.<\/p>\n

“We didn’t sign up for this,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The constant noise, the dust, the traffic early in the morning. The tremors twice a day.”<\/p>\n

\"Photos<\/p>\n

Residents say a mining blast on Sunday, January 11, rocked the town site. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

The big blast\u00a0<\/p>\n

The final straw for Mr Stallard and some other residents was a big mining blast on January 11, which reverberated across the town.<\/p>\n

Local Rick Fryer described it as “the mother of all blasts”.<\/p>\n

“It frightened the daylights out of so many people,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It just slowly formed into this massive, massive cloud.”<\/p>\n

The self-described “newbie” has lived in Greenbushes for the past 15 years.<\/p>\n

\"Rick<\/p>\n

Rick Fryer says dust from the mine is a constant nuisance. (ABC South West WA: Jon Daly)<\/p>\n

“I knew there was a mine here when we moved here nearly 15 years ago, but it wasn’t this mine. Not the way it’s operating now,” Mr Fryer said.<\/p>\n

“A lot of the residents, old-time residents, too, are really upset about what’s happening to the town, to our town.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

A Talison Lithium spokesperson said the blast recorded 124 linear decibels (dBL), which breached the mine’s Sunday noise limit of 120 dBL.<\/p>\n

“This was Talison’s first reportable breach of the airblast limit since that was set in our licence conditions approved in 2015,” the company said.<\/p>\n

The company said the typical blast would measure 100 dBL, making the January 11 explosion “considerably more noticeable”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Talison Lithium says the January 11 blast breached its noise limit and was reported to the regulator. (ABC South West WA: Jon Daly)<\/p>\n

An internal and external investigation concluded that a routine “pre-split” blast, a critical technique used to cleanly break rock away from the pit wall, was the cause, according to the company.<\/p>\n

Talison Lithium said it had already implemented several changes to the way it conducted such blasts.<\/p>\n

The ABC has spoken to home owners who believe the regular and repeated vibrations from mine blasting have damaged ceilings and cracked drywalls.<\/p>\n

The company said that while some impacts were inherent to mining, it was committed “to do better and be a good neighbour”.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The cumulative effects of dust, traffic and noise have ignited calls for a home buyback scheme. (ABC South West WA: Jon Daly)<\/p>\n

Home owners want buybacks<\/p>\n

The recent blast has stirred further discontent as the mounting effects of the noise, traffic and dust take a toll on the town’s residents.<\/p>\n

Some residents have complained of persistent coughs, watering eyes, and the nuisance of having to deal with the thin white dust coating cars and homes.<\/p>\n

Mr Stallard said the mine’s impacts had intensified since approved production capacity increased to 2.8 million tonnes of lithium concentrate a year in 2019.<\/p>\n

“I intended to live here the rest of my life, I really did,” Mr Stallard said.<\/p>\n

“But it’s got to the stage where everything’s incessant, and it’s not going to stop.<\/p>\n

“Sooner or later you just go, ‘Enough’s enough.'”<\/p>\n

Mr Stallard wants the mine to set up a voluntary home buyback or relocation scheme to help locals leave town.<\/p>\n

\"Handfuls<\/p>\n

Talison’s mining operation supplies 20 per cent of the world’s lithium. (ABC South West WA: Jon Daly)<\/p>\n

Northern Star Resources set up such a scheme in 2021 for residents in the suburb of Williamstown<\/a>, on the edge of Kalgoorlie’s Super Pit gold mine.<\/p>\n

Talison Lithium said it planned to operate for “decades to come”, and that it would take time and meaningful consultation to develop a shared vision for the future with the community.<\/p>\n

“It is too early to\u00a0determine\u00a0what\u00a0will be recommended, but nothing should be ruled\u00a0out,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

However, some locals feel their window of opportunity is closing as surrounding property markets outpace Greenbushes.<\/p>\n

The town has a population of about 365 people, and the median house price is $395,000, compared to $595,000 at Balingup, just 11km away.<\/p>\n

“A lot of them feel like they’re trapped here because their house prices aren’t going to go up,” Mr Stallard said.<\/p>\n

“They can’t afford to buy elsewhere.”<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Talison Lithium wants to be a “good neighbour” as it plans to continue its operations for decades to come. (ABC South West WA: Jon Daly)<\/p>\n

‘A good neighbour’<\/p>\n

The miner has its eyes set on further expansion.<\/p>\n

WA’s environmental authority is considering Talison Lithium’s proposal to increase its development envelope by more than 25 per cent.<\/p>\n

Since Rob Telford was appointed Talison’s chief executive in late 2024, the company has adopted a markedly conciliatory tone in its community relations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mr Telford has previously told the ABC he wants the mine to set the benchmark for transparency and community engagement.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Rob Telford has introduced a raft of measures to reduce impacts on nearby residents. (ABC South West WA: Jon Daly)<\/p>\n

Talison does not shy away from discussing its impacts and has previously expressed “deep regret” for them.<\/a><\/p>\n

“We know we need to do better, and we are taking further steps to reduce impacts,” a public statement read after the January 11 blast.<\/p>\n

Following community criticism last year, the company introduced a raft of measures, including real-time public dust monitoring, expanded dust suppression, and noise reduction on haul trucks, among other things.<\/p>\n

Dust level exceedence attributed to the mine halved from eight incidents in 2024 to four last year, according to the company.<\/p>\n

Talison is also rebuilding Stanifer Street, a thoroughfare for haul trucks through the middle of town.<\/p>\n

The company said it had considered ways to divert traffic away from the town, but it did not progress due to “design challenges” and the potential to create additional impacts.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Rick Fryer says the company needs to do more to address its impacts on locals. (ABC South West WA: Jon Daly)<\/p>\n

But it is not good enough for Mr Fryer, who wants a bypass road built to divert traffic away from his home on Stanifer Street.<\/p>\n

“It’s very easy to say sorry after you do something,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Stallard believes managing the effects of a world-leading mining operation on the doorstep of a small community is impossible.<\/p>\n

“I think they’re doing everything they can. It’s just not enough,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s physically impossible to stop it.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Trevor Stallard wants to relocate because of the mine’s operations. (ABC South West WA: Jon Daly)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Home owners living beside the world’s biggest hard-rock lithium mine in Western Australia’s South West region are calling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,230555,99,53306,194272,230556,40444,6827,72697,153283,230554,45],"class_list":["post-444013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-blasting","tag-business","tag-dust","tag-greenbushes","tag-home-buyback","tag-lithium","tag-mining","tag-relocation","tag-south-west-wa","tag-talison-lithium","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}