Exploration licence applications have been lodged for sites near Tea Gardens and Tomago by a company that hopes to extract rare earths from the waste dumps of former mineral sands mines.
The first application, the Pipers Creek project, relates to the tailings dump of the former Hawks Nest mineral sands mine site about 3.5 kilometres north east of Tea Gardens.
The second application focuses on the waste dumps of the old Tomago Mineral Separation Plant.
The proponent, Rare Earth Recovery, is seeking to extract monazite and xenotime, sources of rare earths that were left behind as a byproduct of previous mining operations.
The minerals, once used in the manufacture of cathode ray tubes, are once again in high demand for a variety of appliances ranging from electric cars to phones.
"There are other former mine sites along the coast but they don't have the same rare earths that these ones have," Rare Earth Recovery director Robert Bishop said.
"In some deposits it was buried back in the mine site and in others it was put into a waste dump. If it was buried in a waste dump, which is the case at these two sites, it is of a potentially economically viable concentration."
The Pipers Creek project exploration area covers land owned by the Karuah Aboriginal Land Council. In addition, the mine site, which closed in the early 2000s, is subject to a land claim.
Former Karuah Aboriginal Land Council chief executive Len Roberts called on the company to consult widely with First Nations people and the wider community as part of its plans.
"How can we oppose or support something when we don't know the full story? The community speaks with one voice. There should be a public meeting to tell us what's going on," Mr Roberts said.
Mr Bishop said that while the exploration area was large, the company was only interested in the former tailings dump that is estimated to be about 250 metres by 150 metres in area.
It will not venture into the surrounding national park, river or beach.
"We applied for the minimum size we could but that actually covers a lot more than the industrial site. We are only interested in the old industrial site where the plant was," he said.
He said the company was keen to consult with all local stakeholders.
"Absolutely we will consult with the local landowners and Traditional Owners as required or whenever they want us to. I think they will like what we are proposing to do," Mr Bishop said.
"It's not a pristine site, it's an old, overgrown industrial site. Yes, there is some wildlife in the area that we will need to reduce the impact on but what we want to do will have a much lesser impact than some of the new housing developments in the area."
The company has applied for a low impact exploration licence that will permit a limited range of exploration activities including surveying, hand sampling and hand augering to a depth of about a metre.
If the exploration licence is successful, work could begin by the middle of this year and run for about six months.
"The minerals that we assume are there are under a small amount of cover. We would be using hand sampling and a geiger counter to explore the area," Mr Bishop said.
If the resource is considered economically viable, a mining licence application would be lodged.
If approved, extraction could commence in 2025 and run for about two years.
It would also result in the full remediation of the site, which presently contains radioactive material.
"I hope the community sees this as a win-win because as they stand, the waste dumps are a hazard. They are radioactive and leaking into the river," Mr Bishop said.
"We will dig it up and take it away, which would have to be done eventually anyway."
Mr Roberts welcomed the plans to rehabilitate the site.
"If they are planning to clean up the radioactive material and make the Myall River safe again then everyone is going to be in favour of that. We are just saying please consult us first," he said.
Rare Earth Recovery would send the material to the Northern Territory, where its partner company is building a rare earth processing plant to process rare earths from other sites.
The plant would secure Australia an independent supply of rare earth minerals, reducing sovereign reliance on imports and offshore processing.
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