Owned by the Lockwood family's Goldfields Honey Australia, the family fears that their own livelihood and that of farmers throughout the country are at risk if the mining project, which is only three kilometres from their main processing plant, goes ahead.

At the heart of their concerns is the potential for heavy metals, including cyanide, to contaminate their hives, force their products off the shelf and prohibit the transfer of hives interstate for orchard propagation.

Managing director Jon Lockwood is so concerned his company is engaging the services of the Macquarie University's department of Earth and Environmental Sciences to help monitor a sample of hives.

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"Professor Mark Taylor will be setting up permanent hives along the boundary of the proposed mine and regularly conducting tests within the hives," he said.

"This has to be done now to develop base line data to use if the mine goes ahead."

Issues such as bees drinking from the tailings dam, the bees and hives exposed to contaminated dust, exposure to cyanide and night lighting, are all some of the unknowns that the monitoring team will be looking at.

"This will cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars on top of what we've already spent on submissions and reports regarding the mine," Mr Lockwood said.

The threat of contamination hanging over the business is limiting expansion plans Mr Lockwood said because if any contamination is detected, he believes his business will be in real trouble.

"Having to recall honey from the supermarket shelves would seriously damage our business" he said.

Manager of Special Projects for Regis Resources Tony McPaul said that independent experts have looked at the concerns raised regarding water and dust and had offered access to the project offset property, Aziel,

"The results of those studies were clear and we don't anticipate any impact on the bees from dust or other project activities," he said.

"Aziel is an area of high conservation value, with large numbers of native trees suitable for bee foraging."