Legal action fails to stop MacArthur River Mine expansion
The MacArthur River Mine expansion in the Northern Territory is going ahead, despite legal action from Indigenous traditional owners.
The lead and zinc mine near Boroloola has begun work diverting the MacArthur River for 5.5 kilometres to allow an open pit.
While the local Kurdanji people say the diversion will interfere with major rainbow serpent sites the mine’s general manger Brian Hearn says they will not be negotiating an agreement with the traditional owners.
“The Aboriginal area protection authority certificates that we’ve got actually cover that area and we’ve designed the whole operation to go around anything that’s of any significance to local people,” he said.
“The original lease where you would normally negotiate with traditional people was negotiated in 1992.”
Source: abc via au.biz.yahoo.com
