Grain farmers oppose sand miners

Written by: Duncan B. on 24 October 2025

The critical minerals deal between Trump and Albanese caused a massive spike in the share prices of critical minerals miners in Australia. These include the Gina Rinehart-backed companies Lynas and Arafura Rare Earths.

One group of Australians who won’t be celebrating are some grain growers in Victoria’s Wimmera and Mallee districts.  These farmers have been growing grain in these regions for 150 years but their farms lie above vast deposits of mineral sands. Mining companies are planning mineral sand mining operations which cover many thousands of hectares of farm land in various parts of north-western Victoria.

Farmers are concerned that the compensation being offered will not be enough to cover having to leave their farms and the effects of noise, vibration and contamination from toxic dust. They are also concerned at the likely effects on the environment and the amount of water that the projects will use. The proper rehabilitation of the land after the project end is another cause for concern.

The Horsham Rural City Council has stated that it will not support a project at Dooen, near Horsham, until it can prove environmental safety, community fairness and long-term benefits. The council has little confidence in the company’s rehabilitation trials.

Farmers have been forming groups to oppose mineral sand mining and are also taking direct action. Recently, 150 farmers and 80 machines gathered to stop trenching work for the water supply to the Donald Mineral Sands Project in the Wimmera. 

Victorian Farmers Federation president Brett Hosking, who is a grain grower in the Mallee, said the rush to dig up and process critical minerals shouldn’t come at the expense of the state’s food bowl. “This can’t be a free-for-all driven by global politics,” he said. “We might be small fish up against these huge mining companies driven by global superpower tensions, but this land and these farmers matter and help provide food for millions.”

We agree with Brett Hosking’s sentiments and wish grain farmers success in their struggle against the mining companies, but fear that they will be swept aside by governments and big corporations in the race for critical minerals.

Grain farmer numbers shrinking
On the subject of grain farmers, Australia has lost 3000 grain and cropping farms in the last two years. The latest Grains Research and Development Corporation annual report shows that there were 19,401 grain farms in 2024-25, 19,780 in 2023-24, 22,491 in 2022-23 and 24,000 in 2015-16. (A grain farm is defined as a business paying levies with a total value of production of more than $40,000 for the financial year.)

The fall in grain farm numbers is even more drastic when we note that there were 52,000 grain farms in 1988-90! The trend has been for grain farms to get larger as farms are consolidated into large aggregations. Foreign buyers, especially Canadian and US pension funds have been big buyers of grain and cropping farms in Australia. 

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