The developer of a stalled $1 billion gold mine insists it could take a decade to get the project back on track, while a federal protection order sparks a heated debate over Aboriginal heritage and planning.
Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek issued an Indigenous Heritage Protection Order rejecting the proposed tailings dam site at the mine near Blayney in central-west New South Wales in mid-August.
The Wiradjuri Central West Aboriginal Traditional Owners Corporation called on the Minister to protect the headwaters and springs of the Belubula River as a central site for creation stories.
Ms. Plibersek again defended her decision on Thursday, saying the order only affected the headwaters dam and not the entire project.
“Once this river is destroyed, it’s destroyed forever,” he told ABC News.
Gold producer Regis Resources had considered other dam sites and the company’s claim that new approvals could take 10 years was “nonsense,” Plibersek said.
But Regis CEO Jim Beyer said the order made the project unfeasible because those alternative sites were also within the exclusion area.
“We have a big task ahead of us to understand what the alternative is to the tailings facility,” Beyer told reporters in Orange on Thursday.
The protection order only affects the dam at the headwaters of the river, says Tanya Plibersek=
Roy Ah-See, a Wiradjuri man, said Ms Plibersek’s decision undermined the council’s recognised authority.
It would take years to complete the geotechnical drilling and environmental studies needed to identify a new location, he said.
‘At this point we’re not sure exactly what direction we can take.
‘We will study it because it is a project worth pursuing, although we do not know for how long.
It could be between five and ten years.
The NSW Independent Planning Commission approved the mine in March 2023, a process that involved consultation with the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council, the elected body for local Indigenous leaders.
Council representatives told the commission they were neither for nor against the mine, but stressed the importance of protecting Aboriginal culture and heritage if it goes ahead.
Wiradjuri’s Roy Ah-See said Ms Plibersek’s decision undermined the council’s recognised authority.
“Not all Aboriginal people are environmentalists, we are about economic empowerment for our people,” Ah-See told the Daily Telegraph Bush Summit in Orange, speaking on behalf of the council.
“Our children want to be part of the economic base of future generations.”
Regis executives have met with several NSW government ministers to consider possible ways forward.
Premier Chris Minns said the company should be able to “move on” and submit a new development application without having to restart the lengthy planning process.
“The planning system in New South Wales is too complex, too difficult, too long and has too many hurdles for people to jump through,” Minns told the conference.
“We told the company, ‘We don’t want you to start at stage one.'”
Blayney County Mayor Scott Ferguson said the growing region had long been waiting for a “shot in the arm” from the mine and the decision was divisive.
“This process is a secretive and deceptive process that… is serving to separate our communities, not unite them,” he said.
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