00:00How do we know it's good barley, boys?
00:05David Byrne's connection to his century-old family farm runs deep.
00:09I was actually born here, born in the house behind us, in Mum and Dad's bedroom.
00:14His father, Peter, doesn't want to lose where he raised his family.
00:18The grandkids, they want to come back here and they love riding the bikes that their
00:22Mums and Dads rode, the same tracks are still here.
00:27But under Victorian law, they'll soon be forced to make way for a sands mine.
00:31Critical minerals that are important, not just for today, but our future.
00:35Astron Corporation is preparing to mine 2,700 hectares of farmland in Banyina in Western
00:41Victoria to extract rare earth minerals that will be shipped to the US and refined into
00:46uranium.
00:48And farmers can't argue against it, because in Australia, the government owns the minerals
00:52regardless of whose land they're in.
00:55There's no veto right for a landowner.
00:57The best pathway for them is to participate in negotiation, ensure that they're getting
01:02the appropriate compensation.
01:04Securing a mining licence takes decades, and most projects fail, leaving many farmers unsure
01:11when and how to engage.
01:12The state of Victoria is coloured by licences, and so it is very hard to know when to participate
01:20and when to allow access to a miner.
01:22But as more mines overlap with farms, experts say it's important to get the balance right.
01:28You can't automatically say that mining is in the best public interest, because farming
01:33is critically important as well.
01:35After four generations of farming, David Byrne is fighting to protect his family and livelihood.
01:41I have no interest in leaving, I don't want to leave, they couldn't pay me enough to find
01:45another place, another area, this is home for me and I always want it to be home, I
01:50want it to be home for my kids.
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