West Arnhem Land
is Aboriginal land, located in Australia's Northern Territory.
The current known situation with respect to uranium exploration is documented below.
A catalogue
of exploration leases in Arnhem Land is also available as well as a map of the West Arnhem region (180k) and a map of the whole of Arnhem Land indicating the location of the actual
lease sites.
The Current Situation in West
Arnhem Land (Feb 2001)
The incursion of uranium exploration activity onto
Aboriginal-owned West Arnhem Land has dramatically picked up in pace in the 1990s. In 1990
there were only four granted exploration licences (ELs) in the whole of Arnhem Land (see map of 1990 ELs), although another 60 or so were in various
stages of negotiation with traditional owners. This situation had barely changed by early
1995. Within two years twelve new licences in West Arnhem Land, in and around the
Alligator Rivers uranium belt, had been granted by the Northern Territory Department of
Mines and Energy, taking the total area under exploration to 16000 square kilometres
(Supervising Scientist 1997).
Between June and November 1999 an additional 11 ELs in West
Arnhem Land moved into the consent to negotiate stage. By February 2001 four of these ELs
had been granted, three of them in the north of the region - ELs 5892 & 2858 to PNC
(Japan) and EL 3346 to an Ernest Henry/Savage joint venture - and the fourth further south
to PNC (EL2855). Most of the granted licences are held by transnational uranium companies Cameco (Canada) and Cogema
(France), often in joint venture arrangements (Scott 1999). PNC's
licence areas are now managed by Cameco (Supervising Scientist 2000). All told, well over
three-quarters of West Arnhem Land is either currently being explored for minerals or is
subject to negotiation.
Cameco has been extremely active in recent years on Jawoyn
country in the Mann River area (on ELs 5061 & 5062), and in the last year in the
vicinity of King River (ELs 734, 5890 & 5891). Also, Afmeco (a subsidiary of Cogema)
has been exploring in the Tin Camp Creek area (ELs 3419, 3589
& 3347) (Supervising Scientist 2000). The latter area contains the potentially
mineable Caramal uranium deposit also formerly known as Nabarlek 2 on an EL
held by Cameco (EL 2505). All three current dry season exploration operations involve
drilling, with significant new road development occurring in the Mann River
area (Supervising Scientist 2000).
The various traditional owners have vetoed an additional 16
applications, as is their right under the provisions of the Aboriginal
Land Rights (NT) Act 1976. However, each veto period lasts for only five years after
which mining companies can reapply. The traditional owners are legally required to
consider any new exploration proposal within a year. Failure to do so is deemed to be
consent, unless the Commonwealth Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Affairs grants an extension. To make the situation even more disempowering for Aboriginal
people, a 1987 amendment to the Land Rights Act stipulated that consent to exploration
automatically inferred consent to mining development.
Initial research in 1998-99 revealed an alarming feature
about this increase in exploration activity. According to an Aboriginal agency source,
insufficient information on the environmental implications of uranium exploration and
mining is getting through to traditional owners. Environmental organisations are entirely
excluded from the EL negotiation process, leaving only the companies themselves and the
cash and staff-strapped Northern Land Council as major informants on ecological issues. In
fact, the terms and parameters of any future mining activities are agreed to in contracts
negotiated outside of the Land Rights Act itself in joint venture arrangements between the
company and traditional owner corporate bodies. This raises important issues of overall
corporate accountability, particularly in the area of environmental management.
It is noted that the 2nd Top End Indigenous
Rangers Conference for Indigenous Land Management held at Wuyagiba Outstation in SE Arnhem
Land last August made a number of recommendations with respect to the risks of mining in
Arnhem Land. Yirritja and Duwa people voiced concern about pollution of water courses,
poisoning of the land, air and bushtucker, and damage to sacred sites, communities and
health. The recommendations pointed out the need to get further help to understand what
mining involves (Land Rights News, December 2000: p10).
The problem for traditional owners then, simply
stated, is that there is limited time and resources to access quality information on the
social and ecological impacts of potential mining development. They are being
pressured into making decisions, which will affect their land and communities for
countless generations to come, on the basis of mining company exploration proposals.
Traditional owners regularly complain about being subjected to too much humbug, and about
not having enough negotiating power to exercise self-determination.
The Northern Land Council (NLC), acting on the behalf of
traditional owners in negotiations with mining companies, is in a bind. On the one hand it
intends to represent the best interests of the landowners. Yet on the other hand the NLC
is heavily reliant on mining royalties to run its activities. Moreover, there is a
prevailing culture within its upper echelons that favours mineral exploration on
Aboriginal land. There is a not unrealistic fear that the organisation may be disbanded if
it is perceived to be 'anti-development' by the mining industry and government. Indeed the
August 1998 Review of the Land Rights Act recommends such a course, along with the
formation of much smaller Regional Land Councils.
In addition, the NLC appears to rely almost solely on the
highly questionable Nabarlek mining and rehabilitation process as its model of
best-practice when representing the interests of traditional owners in negotiations. It
specifically attributes the increase in exploration licences in West Arnhem Land over
recent years to traditional owners positive first hand experience of the
Nabarlek rehabilitation (NLC 1998). Yet the Supervising Scientist, in its December
2000 report to the Alligator Rivers Region Advisory Committee, was of the view that
the rehabilitation of Nabarlek had not yet reached the stage where the mining
company (QML) could be discharged of its responsibilities (Supervising Scientist
2000: p7). A consultants report prepared at the behest of the company was seen to be
lacking in the necessary data to support the conclusions made concerning the success of
revegetation at the mine site. A workshop was subsequently called by the Supervising
Scientist, which the company and consultants declined to attend.
The NT Government has, of course, avidly
supported this increased exploration activity. It is pumping in $16 million of funding to
the five year NT Exploration Initiative, which aims to improve the geoscientific data
available to the mining industry, particularly for what is known as
greenfields exploration on previously unexplored land. There is reason for
some optimism though. Whilst exploration may be the lifeblood of the mining
industry, as Minister of Resource Development, Daryl Manzie, argued in Parliament earlier
this year, it is also subject to the ups and downs of global commodity markets. Companies
such as Cameco are currently being hammered by the low price of uranium. Not only is it
looking to sell its 6% share in ERA, but it is becoming harder and harder for exploration
managers to justify programs to head office on financial grounds.
Last year Black Range Minerals, which was in a
number of joint ventures with Cameco and Afmeco through its subsidiary UAL, decided to
disinvest from Arnhem Land uranium exploration. It cited the languishing uranium market as
the primary reason for doing so, but also mentioned that financing of its Syerston project
in NSW was being made difficult through its uranium involvement. All of its interests were
bought out by Cameco for a mere $100,000.
The recent upsurge in exploration in West
Arnhem Land has largely come about due to the relaxation of political constraints on
uranium mining under the Howard Government. Economic constraints, however, may see the
companies pack their bags and leave once again, this time hopefully for good.
References
Northern Land Council 1998. Submission to the Review of
the Aboriginal Land Rights (NT) Act 1976, NLC, Darwin.
Scott, G. 1999. Uranium exploration in West Arnhem Land -
plus other papers on uranium mining and Aboriginal land rights in the Alligator Rivers
Region. Unpublished report for the Environment Centre of the Northern Territory, February
1999.
Supervising Scientist 1997. Annual Report 1996-97.
AGPS, Canberra.
Supervising Scientist 2000. Report of the Supervising
Scientist to the Alligator Rivers Region Advisory Committee, December 2000,
Supervising Scientist, Darwin. |