An application by mining company Glencore to build a massive toxic tailings dump on the edge of a sacred site has been rejected by the Northern Territory government.
The controversial McArthur River mine, which is one of world’s largest zinc and lead mines, is roughly 900km south-east of Darwin and borders the Barramundi Dreaming sacred site, near Borroloola.
On Tuesday, NT heritage minister, Chansey Paech, tabled a decision in parliament to reject an application to build the rock dump – which would stand as the largest built structure in the Northern Territory – to within 35 metres of the site.
Josie Davey, a Gudanji woman and traditional owner of the mine site, and her husband, Jack Green, a senior Garawa lawman, welcomed the decision saying the company would now have to negotiate properly with traditional owners.
“It was the best thing,” Green said. “It should have happened before, properly, if they were to come and sit down and talk to the traditional owners of the area. All of us are happy now, it took us a long time to come to an agreement like this.”
They described the proposal as a “new mountain” and Davey said significant damage had already been done by the company over the past two decades.
“I feel sad at what they have done. Because this is my great, great-grandfather’s country. And for our people,” Davey said.
Under its expansion plans, Glencore – which took over the mine in 2006 – sought to expand its tailings dump to within 35 metres of the Barramundi Dreaming sacred site, which rises to a height of 80 metres, and is one of 24 sacred sites on the mine lease.
The dump would stand at a height of 140 metres, with a 6km square footprint, making it taller than the Sydney Harbour Bridge at 134 metres with an area larger than Uluru, which measures roughly 3.33km square.
The weight of the structure would have likely altered the groundwater table and would need to be monitored for 1,000 years due to the high acid content of the waste rock. The highly combustible rock dissolves easily and the chemical runoff can seep into groundwater and nearby river systems.
There is also another valuable archaeological site in the area, an ancient stone quarry that is part of local songlines and where local Aboriginal people mass produced stone tools, axe heads, knives and spear tips.
This site is not covered in Tuesday’s decision and Glencore has made a separate application with Paech to demolish it. The company continues to widen the tailings dump while it waits for approval to build higher.
In making its application, the company claimed it had consulted with traditional owners but when the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority (AAPA) reviewed the matter, they determined the agreement was invalid.
None of the site’s 180 custodians had been consulted while the six signatories who had did not necessarily understand what they agreed to or were not given copies of the contract.
AAPA CEO Dr Benedict Scambary said Tuesday’s decision demonstrated that negotiation with traditional owners was “not a box to be ticked”.
“One of the things this decision will do is put other proponents of development in the Northern Territory on notice that murky deals done without representation, that are designed to disempower Aboriginal people in the protection of the sacred sites and cultural heritage, won’t pass muster,” he said.
Co-director of the Environment Centre NT, Kirsty Howey, also said the decision was a “watershed” moment in the history of an “extraordinarily damaging mine authorised in extraordinary circumstances”.
“We’ve never seen a Labor government minister in the NT back traditional owners on this mine which has been enormously destructive and damaging to traditional owners for years,” Howey said.
“Minister Paech should be applauded for having the backbone to stand up to Glencore.”
The NT Environment Centre is currently involved in legal action against the territory government over approvals given by Nicole Manison in 2020 for its expansion.
A spokesperson for McArthur River mine said in a statement the company is in negotiations with the Northern Land Council, acting on behalf of traditional owners, but “remains committed to further developments at our mine site”.
“We remain committed to these negotiations and broad consultation with traditional owners on a variety of matters, including sacred sites and cultural heritage protection, to ensure the benefits of our operations are shared with TOs and the wider community.”
The McArthur River mine has been subject to several current and historical litigations, and was a suspected source of lead contamination in drinking water used by the Borroloola’s Aboriginal community until an investigation found there was no indication the contamination was related to the mine.
An effort to keep the company from diverting the river in order to allow it to mine the riverbed was successful in court but ultimately overridden by the NT Government to allow work to proceed.
The company apologised for its treatment of Aboriginal people and traditional owners in 2021, and specifically for the river diversion.
