Kalbar Operations Pty Ltd, developer of the Fingerboards mineral sands project at Glenaladale, 20 kilometres north west of Bairnsdale, is becoming a sheep and cattle producer.

The Fingerboards Pastoral Company will produce sheep and beef cattle within and adjacent to the Fingerboards project area.

Kalbar Operations’ Chief Executive Officer, Jozsef Patarica, said the available farming land had made an agricultural enterprise possible and that grazing was a viable means of maintaining the land.

“We want to look after the land, and we don’t want to see it degenerate or become overtaken by feral animals and weeds,” said Mr Patarica.

Kalbar Operations will run the pastoral company as a commercial farming operation and expects it to be self-sufficient within a few years.

“The farming activities would focus on breeding and raising sheep and cattle and potentially developing cropping and mixed farming in time,” said Mr Patarica.

“Our initial plan is to employ an experienced farm manager to look at the properties and see what needs to be done in terms of infrastructure and improvements. Once the farm infrastructure is in place, we hope to have livestock introduced to the land in the second half of 2021,” he said.

The move by Kalbar Operations into agriculture is consistent with other companies who have successfully established pastoral concerns in other parts of Australia as part of their broader mining operations.

Kalbar Operations is proud to be investing in agriculture in the East Gippsland region, demonstrating that mining, farming, land management and nature conservation can co-exist and provide additional opportunities for the local community.

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For further information please contact:
Vesna Rendulic
vesna.rendulic@kalbaroperations.com.au
0491 055 310