Pip Hinman
The Environment Centre Northern Territory (ECNT) described the NT government's decision on August 29 to approve an environmental assessment for a controversial open-cut zinc mine on the McArthur River as a "big mistake".
The Swiss-based mining company Xstrata wants to divert 5.5 kilometres of the McArthur River and convert an underground mine into an open-cut one near Borroloola in the Gulf region. ECNT spokesperson Emma King said that various submissions to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) indicated that the mine could not responsibly be approved.
Having been knocked back once by the NT environment minister, the company's resubmitted plan did not sufficiently reduce the risk of major erosion and sedimentation impacts, King said. Concerns about acid mine drainage, heavy metal contamination and the impacts on the 43 species of fish in the McArthur River have not been addressed, she added.
King said that Xstrata's threat to close its operation, sending 270 workers into unemployment, won out over scientific, environmental, economic and cultural concerns. "We believe that if the diversion plan had been rejected again, Xstrata, or a new company, could have found a way to mine without causing such a huge impact on this major tropical river system."
The NT and federal governments have 30 days to decide if they will give the mining company final approval, and the ECNT is calling on them not to do so. Environment minister Marion Scrymgour has been quoted as saying that the project should be allowed to proceed, provided Xstrata pays a security bond.
According to the ECNT's July 31 submission to the EPA, the company has also failed to "produce a workable community engagement strategy, underlined by the fact that there is continued opposition to the river diversion proposal by a large majority of Aboriginal people living in the region". It argues that a new marine park should be built at the mouth of the McArthur River and Sir Edward Pellew Islands, in order to "provide a much more culturally, socially, economically and ecologically sustainable future for the region".
For more information, visit <http://www.ecnt.org/pdf/mining_mcarthur_PER_sub_summ.pdf>.