Eight people have been arrested after 50 protesters stormed an open-cut goldmine in western New South Wales.
A group calling itself Cyanide Watch is opposed to the use of cyanide at the Barrick mine, near Lake Cowal.
Spokesman Graeme Dunstan says waste transported to Queensland for disposal will pose a deadly risk to communities in the event of an accident.
"This mine's poisoning the equivalent of Dubbo's water supply each year, permanently poisoning it, pumping this pure, unpolluted artesian water, which has been there hundreds of thousands of years, pumping it to the pit, polluting it with cyanide. Then they neutralise the cyanide, and leave all these by-products, heavy metals."