A group of native title holders from the McArthur River region in the Northern Territory has won a High Court battle to prevent the expansion of an open cut mine on the Gulf of Carpentaria.
A dispute between three native title holders — Mr Friday, David Harvey and Thomas Simon — and Mount Isa Mines, a subsidiary of Glencore which operates the McArthur River Mine, began in 2013 when the mining giant applied for a mineral lease to construct a new dredge dumping area.
The McArthur River Mine, sitting on one of the world’s largest zinc and lead deposits, has long faced fierce opposition from traditional owners over the mine’s effects on their native title rights, alleged damage to sacred sites and concerns about degradation to local ecosystems.
Since the mine opened, the lead and zinc deposits have needed to be trucked about 120 kilometres to the Bing Bong port for global export.
For the rest of this article: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-07/glencore-mcarthur-river-mine-port-high-court-ruling-native-title/103435694