It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, August 07, 2024
EDM Provides Progress Report at the Scotia Mine
Newsfile Corp.
Halifax, Nova Scotia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 6, 2024) - EDM Resources Inc. (TSXV: EDM) ("EDM" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it continues to make significant progress for a restart of operations at the Scotia Mine.
"We are pleased to update our investors that EDM continues to make significant progress on an extensive range of tasks that are necessary to advance the Scotia Mine to production," said, Mr. Mark Haywood, President & CEO. "Whilst completing the application to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is one of the major tasks our teams are working on, we are also busy advancing several other important and necessary steps in parallel so that the mine can be ready for a production decision as soon as permitting is completed," he added.
Completion of all seasons of sampling for Atlantic Salmon DNA as required by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans ("DFO").
Ongoing reconnaissance work to identify additional potential locations for stream and/or river restoration required by the DFO for the fish habitat offsetting plan.
Widespread outreach to our First Nation Stakeholders in Nova Scotia as part of the important social license initiatives for re-starting the Scotia Mine.
Ongoing surface and ground water modelling as part of the application for DFO.
Preparation of Mine Plans for the geotechnical assessment work prior to mine production.
Preliminary assessment of high-grade ores that will be used in the Density Media Separation pilot plant testing. Results of the DMS Study are expected to be available in mid-September.
About EDM Resources Inc.
EDM is a Canadian exploration and mining company that has full ownership of the Scotia Mine and related facilities near Halifax, Nova Scotia. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, EDM also holds several prospective exploration licenses near its Scotia Mine and in the surrounding regions of Nova Scotia.
The Company's common shares are traded on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "EDM". For more information, please contact:
BC
Locals mark 10 years since Mount Polley disaster
By Lauren Stallone Posted August 5, 2024
It’s been 10 years since the worst mine waste disaster in Canada’s history.
On Aug. 4, 2014, a massive tailings dam at the Mount Polley copper and gold mine in B.C.’s Interior collapsed. The incident about 56 kilometres northeast of Williams Lake sent over 20 million cubic metres of wastewater into nearby Quesnel Lake, Polley Lake, Hazeltine Creek, and surrounding waterways.
Despite a decade having passed, residents in nearby Likely, B.C., say they’re still struggling with unresolved emotions about what happened and should be held accountable.
“The quality of the lake and the water have been and are continuing to deteriorate,” said Doug Watt, an area resident. “Frankly it’s a very strong feeling of frustration.”
Watt was there when disaster struck, and recalls the moments vividly.
“I was asleep and got a call around 6 o’clock in the morning from Likely Fire and Rescue and they told me that the dam had burst,” he told CityNews. An aerial view shows the damage caused by a tailings pond breach near the town of Likely, B.C. Tuesday, August, 5, 2014, after the Mount Polley mine disaster a day prior. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
“I could hear it just like Niagara Falls from seven or eight kilometres down the lake.”
Watt says some residents have lived by the lake for over 50 years and are devastated to see what has happened since the collapse.
“The water’s cloudy, there’s algae bloom that never occurred before, there’s slime on the rocks,” he described.
He says many locals have opted to no longer drink the water from Quesnel Lake, which was their main water source. Despite these concerns, the government says the water meets drinking standards.
However, residents aren’t buying it.
“They’re polluting the lake, we are not going to drink it anymore,” said Watt.
In a statement to CityNews, Minister of Energy, Mines, and Low Carbon Innovation Josie Osborne says “the government has taken significant steps to ensure the company responsible continues restoring and monitoring the impacted areas.”
“They have reformed B.C.’s regulations to establish what they say are some of the world’s most stringent safety and environmental standards,” Osborne continued.
The statement goes on to say “it was clear that B.C. had allowed a regulatory framework to exist that did not adequately protect the environment or people.”
“Economic development cannot happen without responsible management of industry, and we must maintain a world-class regulatory system to bring peace of mind to the mining sector and British Columbians,” Osborne’s statement concluded.
But even with the improvements made, the residents affected by the Mount Polley disaster are wary of the potential for things to go wrong.
“There are many mines in B.C. with very, very large tailings ponds. Every one of them is a liability,” said Watts.
A aerial view shows the debris going into Quesnel Lake caused by a tailings pond breach near the town of Likely, B.C., on Aug. 5, 2014. (The Canadian Press)
The local fire department was on the line when Doug Watt reached for his phone the morning of Aug. 4, 2014.
"The lady at fire and rescue said that there's been an accident at the mine, the dam is broken, it's pouring into the lake, nobody knows what's happening so get your boat out of the water, don't drink the water and be prepared to evacuate because you don't know whether the lake is going to flood or not," he recalled.
After he got off the phone with the fire department, Watt stepped outside and heard the roar of the dam breach about seven kilometres away from his home in Likely, B.C.
"It was quite disconcerting," he said.
The tailings dam at the Mount Polley mine, about 231 kilometres north of Kamloops, B.C., failed that day, sending toxic mine waste into nearby lakes and streams. It is widely regarded as one of the worst — if not the worst — mine disasters in Canadian history.
Hazeltine Creek, B.C., on Aug. 27, 2014, three weeks after the Mount Polley Mine tailings spill. (Kieran Oudshoorn/CBC)
Mount Polley mine records filed with Environment Canada reported that hundreds of tonnes of arsenic, lead, copper and nickel flowed out in the sludge.
On the 10-year anniversary of the spill, residents worry not enough has been done to remediate the site and prevent future disasters.
WATCH | Perfect storm of problems, engineer says:
Why the Mount Polley tailings pond breached
10 years ago
Duration2:25
Designers overlooked or dismissed test results
10 years later
Researcher Phil Owens said about 25 million cubic metres of tailings material ended up in Hazeltine Creek and Quesnel Lake — the equivalent of 10,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, he said.
And most of that is still sitting at the bottom of the lake, researchers have found.
"This was an instantaneous catastrophic failure ... and yet still 10 years later, we're still picking up levels of metals like copper flowing down Quesnel River and getting into the water column of the lake," he said. "That is quite surprising."
WATCH | Fishers worry about salmon following Mount Polley spill:
Mount Polley spill salmon concerns
10 years ago
Duration2:19
Fraser River fishermen say they're worried
Copper, he added, has been detected in zooplankton, a key food source for salmon and trout in the river.
"I would be concerned about eating the fish, particularly those fish that live in the system for a long time because it's now been 10 years," Owens said.
A scathing auditor general report was released in May 2016, calling for an independent compliance and enforcement unit for the mining industry that would protect the environment from future disasters.
Changes
Likely resident and biologist Richard Holmes said that shortly after the spill, he had high hopes for remediation and change in B.C.'s mining industry. But 10 years later, he said there's been little action.
According to Imperial Metals, it has spent $70 million to clean up the Mount Polley spill site, which has gone toward removal of tailings and rebuilding the Hazeltine and lower Edney creeks, and building a new fish spawning and rearing habitat in Hazeltine Creek.
Mount Polley spill remediation work as seen from a back road near Quesnel Lake in August 2021. (Betsy Trumpener/CBC)
The company also says it repaired the Quesnel Lake shoreline, planted native trees and shrubs in the area and built an on-site rainbow trout hatchery to raise more trout for Polley Lake.
In 2021, two engineers were disciplined for actions that led to the breach. Engineers and Geoscientists B.C., the regulatory body that oversees engineers in the province, found that both had demonstrated unprofessional conduct.
Last week, Minister of Energy, Mines and Low-Carbon Innovation Josie Osborne released a statement explaining what the province has done following the Mount Polley breach.
Osborne said the province has created a chief auditor role, Mines Audit Unit and a Mines Investigation Unit. It has also established financial penalties for companies and, Osborne said, the province has reformed B.C.'s mining regulations.
"For many people, that day 10 years ago is hard to forget," Osborne said in her statement, adding that the NDP government will continue to strengthen mining regulations and oversight.
Damage caused by a tailings pond breach near the town of Likely, B.C., Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)
But residents of the central B.C. community of about 350 people have watched Quesnel Lake continue to deteriorate in the years since the spill, Watt said.
"People that have been here for 25 or 50 years can see that and lots of concern and very much frustration with the fact that the [province] is not listening to what we see out here."
Holmes said he would like the province to give legal standing to rivers and streams in B.C., similar to Magpie River in Quebec, which was granted legal personhood in 2021 for protection.
Holmes also thinks provincial funding should be made available for independent research.
"Very little has changed as a result of this disaster and certainly not enough has changed, that's for sure."
First Quantum to trim work hours at stalled Panama copper mine
Aerial view of Cobre Panama mine. Credit: First Quantum Minerals
First Quantum Minerals Ltd. is trimming working hours at its stalled copper mine in Panama in a bid to rein in the cost of preserving the site following last year’s shutdown order, the union said.
The Canadian firm will reduce extraordinary hours available to workers and end Sunday activities, according to a union statement. Changes will take effect Aug. 15. First Quantum declined to comment.
“The company is executing this action without support from the workers that are still there to keep the project afloat,” union leader Michael Camacho said in a text message Tuesday.
The decision may put some pressure on the new administration of President Jose Raul Mulino as authorities review First Quantum’s plan to safeguard the site. Mulino has floated the possibility of reopening the mine for an unknown period to cover the cost of a permanent closure.
As a precursor to those talks, Mulino has asked the company to drop arbitration proceedings against Panama. First Quantum said it spent $115 million on care and maintenance at the site from January to June. Panamanian authorities have set the shutdown cost at $800 million.
Mulino’s predecessor ordered the shutdown of the Cobre Panama mine last year after weeks of public protests culminated in the country’s top court ruling that First Quantum’s contract was unconstitutional.
(By Valentine Hilaire and Jacob Lorinc)
Deutsche Bank sells down coal mine loan to private credit funds
Deutsche Bank AG has sold a portion of a $600 million loan being used to finance an Australian coal mine’s acquisition to some private credit funds, according to people familiar with the matter.
The German lender in recent weeks sold about $120 million — half of its exposure — to Australian and Asian credit funds including Income Asset Management Group Ltd., Regal Funds Management, and Keyview Financial Group, said the people, who requested anonymity as the matter is private.
The bank plans to retain its remaining portion of the loan that’s supporting a Golden Energy and Resources-led consortium’s acquisition of the Illawarra coking coal mine in Australia. It originally held about 40% of the loan, the people said.
The transaction underscores the growing role of private credit funds as an alternative funding source for coal and and other fossil fuel-related projects, which banks are increasingly avoiding due to environmental, social and governance concerns.
Deutsche Bank, Income Asset and Regal all declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg. Keyview did not respond to emails requesting comment.
The Golden Energy-led consortium signed the $600 million loan in July with Deutsche Bank and private credit funds namely Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP, Farallon Capital Management LLC, King Street Capital Management LP, Washington H. Soul Pattinson & Co., and Broad Peak Investment Advisers Pte.
The consortium also raised a separate $150 million working capital loan and a A$150 million ($100 million) guarantee facility.
GEAR M Illawarra Met Coal, the entity acquiring the mine from Australia-based South32 Ltd. for $1.65 billion, mandated Grant Samuel as an adviser in its fund-raising efforts, Bloomberg reported in March. Singapore-based Golden Energy, controlled by Indonesia’s Widjaja family, owns a 70% stake in GEAR M Illawarra Met Coal, with M Resources Pty. holding the rest.
(By Megawati Wijaya and Sharon Klyne)
CHART: Did the EV battery metals industry peak in 2022?
The promise of electric cars has occupied the mining industry (and these pages) going on seven years now.
Recall when Glencore heralded a new dawn for mining thanks to EVs – telling the audience at its 2017 investors day that “as early as 2020, when electric vehicles would still make up only 2% of new vehicle sales, related metal demand already becomes significant.”
That prediction proved conservative – global penetration reached over 5% in 2020. The data is still trickling in, but the second quarter of this year is on course to set a new record for the electrification of the global car parc with 26% of passenger vehicle sales either full electric, plug-in or conventional hybrids.
Traditional hybrids remain a meaningful source of battery metals demand (thanks to large volumes and the widespread use of nickel metal hydride batteries) and even when stripping out Priuses (Pria?) with new owners, nearly one in five vehicles sold worldwide in Q2 was electrified.
Yet, when pairing robust metals demand with often volatile prices in the EV battery supply chain the picture looks very different.
The graph from Adamas Intelligence below shows the monthly dollar value of lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and graphite contained in the batteries of EVs based on global end-user EV registrations, battery capacity and chemistries.
When looking at a streamgraph you don’t want the bulge to be at the start, but a chart that looks like an ink blot Rorschach test like the one below is hardly better.
December 2022 saw a record $4.2 billion worth of battery metals business done.
December is usually a blowout month for the global EV industry and the final month of 2023 was no exception. During December 2023 battery metals consumption was up another 20% year-over-year to a combined 140,000 tonnes on the back of a 23% increase in total giga-watt hours of battery capacity hitting the world’s roads that month.
However, more than $2.8 billion had disappeared from the value chain as metal prices capitulated.
During calendar 2022, the monthly value of combined battery metals deployment averaged $2.6 billion. In 2023, that number was $2.1 billion. So far this year? Down to $1.5 billion.
In the analysis below, materials deployed constitute installed terminal tonnes and do not take into account yield losses during conversion, refining and manufacturing processes, or production scrap.
This means that at the mine mouth the required tonnes (and values) to feed the supply chain are considerably higher.
Also, with 2023’s slump still in the rearview mirror, there is growing consensus that battery metals prices have bottomed out.
And combined with still healthy, albeit slowing EV sales growth should provide battery metals miners some comfort. But right now, that’s mostly cold comfort.
Canada hits surprise trade surplus on energy, gold exports
Canada unexpectedly recorded a C$638 million ($461 million) trade surplus in June as an expanded crude oil pipeline and surging global demand for gold drove exports higher.
Economists in a Bloomberg survey had expected the country to record a trade deficit for the fourth month in a row, with a median estimate of C$2.04 billion. Statistics Canada noted in Tuesday’s release the size of the surplus was “close to the typical bounds of monthly revisions,” having revised the previous month’s trade balance upward by about C$320 million.
Exports rose 5.5% overall in June, outpacing a 1.9% rise in imports.
The report was released at the same time as US data that showed the country’s trade defict narrowed in June for the first time in three months. Canadian government two-year bond yields rose about three basis points on the day to 3.213%, while the loonie fell about 0.1% to C$1.384 per US dollar as of 8:45 a.m. in Ottawa.
The rise in exports captures the impact of the Trans Mountain pipeline’s expansion, which began commercial operations in May. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government spent billions to complete the near-tripling in capacity of a line that runs from Alberta’s oil sands to a Vancouver-area port.
Exports of energy products were up 11.7% in June, led by higher exports of crude oil. While crude oil prices rose in June, volumes were the largest contributor to the increase, driven largely by higher shipments to Asian countries.
“Despite robust export activity in June, trade will likely act as a headwind to second-quarter gross domestic product growth, as April and May data came in on the weaker end,” Marc Ercolao, an economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank, said in a report to investors.
“That being said, the hand-off into next quarter could prove to be significant. The effects of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion are now flowing through the data, with strong crude oil exports expected in the coming months.”
Strong international appetites for gold also pushed up Canadian exports, with metals and non-metallic mineral deliveries up 11.8% in June following a 7.3% decline in May. Statistics Canada noted that in the first half of the year, large monthly fluctuations were observed in export values of unwrought gold due in part to geopolitical turmoil. In June, gold exports to the UK rose considerably, it said.
June’s rise in imports points to resilience in consumer demand, with passenger vehicles and consumer goods driving the gain. Imports of passenger cars and light trucks rose 8.2% to a record C$6.8 billion in June, a fourth increase in five months. The growth occurred amid a recovery from production disruptions and delayed deliveries in the United States in late 2023 and early 2024, Statistics Canada said.
In volume terms, Canada’s exports rose 3.8% in June while imports increased 1.3%. The country’s trade surplus with the US widened for a third consecutive month, to C$9.4 billion from C$8.8 billion.
(By Laura Dhillon Kane)
Tuesday, August 06, 2024
SENEGAL
Endeavour production target at risk as workers embark on strike
Conveyors at the Sabodala gold mine in Senegal. Credit: Teranga Gold
Workers at Endeavour Mining Plc’s Sabodala-Massawa mine in Senegal started a strike on Thursday that could hamper the company’s ability to reach annual production target.
The work stoppage, which comes following the arrival of new equipment at the project, risks having a serious impact on gold production in “the second trimester of 2024,” according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg.
The reason workers laid down their tools was not immediately known. A spokeswoman for the company declined to comment when she was contacted by phone.
“Even if this strike was short-lived, the shutdown of this plant would affect the equipment” and “it would be months before we could hope for a return to normal activity,” the memo said.
Endeavour was on track to achieve its full-year guidance of between 1.13 million ounces and 1.27 million ounces following an expansion of the site, the company said in April.
(By Katarina Höije and Momar Niang)
Endeavour’s ex-CEO paid miner $1.35 million settlement after firing
Bloomberg News | August 5, 2024 Endeavour Mining’s former CEO Sébastien de Montessus. (Image by Endeavour Mining).
Endeavour Mining Plc said its former chief executive officer paid the firm $1.35 million in a settlement, months after the gold miner fired him for alleged serious misconduct.
The London-listed company removed Sebastien de Montessus in January amid a probe into an “irregular” payment of $5.9 million made at the instruction of the then-CEO. Endeavour has since finished the investigation, saying in March it had also identified two previous transfers — totaling $15 million — to the same entity in the United Arab Emirates but was unable to determine the ultimate beneficiary
A spokesperson for the former CEO declined to comment about the settlement. De Montessus has previously said he never personally benefited from the transactions.
De Montessus paid the sum to Endeavour last month after the two parties concluded a settlement agreement, the company said in a report published July 31.
An additional $26.4 million has already been forfeited and clawed back, Endeavour said in last week’s report. The company in January outlined plans to claw back a total of $29.1 million in remuneration, including $15.6 million in unvested and forfeited share awards.
Endeavour has previously said de Montessus signed a “personal investment agreement” for at least $500,000 in 2019 with a firm that holds a stake in a consortium which went on to buy a small mine from Endeavour in 2022. The investigation was unable to “ascertain to what extent” de Montessus “directly profited from this relationship,” the company said in March.
De Montessus previously said payments to the UAE entity were advances to an established contractor of the miner and for essential security equipment, adding that Endeavour didn’t suffer any loss from the arrangement. He also has said that the $500,000 investment was never made.
Endeavour transformed during de Montessus’ seven-year stint at the helm through a spate of dealmaking and mine-building that replaced small and high-cost operations with newer projects. The company owns gold mines in West Africa with assets across Senegal, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso.
(By William Clowes)
NO SEA BED MINING
A fraught election just reshaped the next steps for deep sea mining
Miners plan to extract cobalt and other battery metals from the seabed. (Image courtesy of The Metals Co.)
A Brazilian oceanographer has been elected the next secretary-general of the International Seabed Authority, a leadership change that could slow the rush to strip-mine deep sea ecosystems for electric vehicle battery metals.
When Leticia Carvalho takes office on Jan. 1, she’ll become the first woman and the first scientist to helm the United Nations-affiliated organization responsible for the fate of 54% of the world’s seabed. A former environmental regulator in Brazil, Carvalho, 50, currently serves as an official at the UN Environment Programme in Nairobi.
Carvalho’s election Friday at the annual summer meeting of the ISA Assembly in Kingston, Jamaica, ends the two-term tenure of Michael Lodge, a 64-year-old British attorney. Lodge aggressively pushed for the completion of regulations that would allow a potentially multibillion-dollar industry to begin, and drew scrutiny for his closeness to the mining companies the Authority regulates.
The vote by ISA member states — which came down 79-34 for Carvalho — also follows a contentious election campaign. It was marked by accusations that a key Lodge supporter tried to bribe Carvalho to drop out of the race in exchange for a top job at the ISA.
In an interview last month, Carvalho told Bloomberg Green that as secretary-general she would focus on science and act as a neutral administrator of the ISA, which includes 169 member states and the European Union. “Transparency and accountability is my top priority,” Carvalho said.
The ISA has already issued 32 contracts to private and state-backed companies to prospect for cobalt, nickel and other metals across more than 1.3 million square kilometers (500,000 square miles) of the seabed in international waters. Last year, the organization set a target of July 2025 for the adoption of complex rules to govern those mining efforts. But Carvalho said years of negotiations may still be needed to ensure that biodiverse and little-known deep sea ecosystems are protected from the most harmful effects of mining.
“There is a big amount of work to be done,” she said. “Logically, I can tell you that it’s unlikely that this is going to be accomplished by the current deadline.”
Complicating matters, scientists last month published findings that the polymetallic nodules targeted for mining in the Pacific Ocean actually produce oxygen — an extraordinary discovery that several ISA delegates cited in Kingston as a reason to slow mining efforts.
A record number of member states were present at this year’s meeting, where tensions over the future of deep sea mining were on display. Some 32 ISA member states have called for a moratorium or a pause on seabed mining, with five countries joining this week.
Adding urgency to the proceedings is The Metals Company (TMC), a Canadian-registered mining venture that has made clear its intention of applying for a mining license this year, regardless of whether regulations are in place, and its plans to start mining operations in early 2026 if the application is approved. TMC has mining contracts with the small Pacific island nations of Nauru, Kiribati and Tonga. The first area of the ocean to be mined is a vast stretch of the Pacific between Hawaii and Mexico.
“This is colonialism by another name, economic imperialism, where multinational mining companies prioritize profits over the wellbeing of our people and ecosystems,” Surangel Whipps Jr., the president of the Pacific island state of Palau, told delegates this week.
Palau has led the efforts to impose a moratorium on deep sea mining until its environmental impacts are better understood. Numerous delegations stated that they would not approve any mining licenses until regulations are adopted.
Although her home country of Brazil has urged a 10-year moratorium on mining, Carvalho said it’s not appropriate for the secretary-general to take a position on the issue. “A pause or moratorium is an advocacy position of many, but so far it hasn’t got onto the agenda of the ISA,” she said.
Other delegations, including China, Japan, and some African nations, pressed the ISA to fulfill its legal mandate to enact regulations so mining can begin. “Within our blue Pacific continent, deep seabed minerals hold immense potential for our prosperity,” said Sonny Williams, a delegate for the Cook Islands, a South Pacific archipelago.
TMC chief executive officer Gerard Barron said that he has met with Carvalho several times. “We like her,” he said. “I think she can bring harmony to the ISA at a time when it could really do with some.”
Glencore Plc (LON: GLEN) has been fined $152 million by Swiss authorities for failing to prevent a business partner from bribing a Congolese public official in 2011.
In a statement released on Monday, the Swiss attorney general’s office (OAG) said that prosecutors determined Glencore did not take sufficient measures to prevent the bribery.
The incident is related to the business partner’s acquisition of minority stakes in two mining companies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from a state-owned enterprise.
The miner said it does not admit the findings but has agreed not to appeal the penalty order so it can resolve the matter.
“Glencore is pleased to have resolved these investigations relating to past matters that occurred over 13 years ago,” group chairman Kalidas Madhavpeddi said in a statement. “This resolves the last of the previously disclosed government investigations into historical misconduct.”
“The OAG stated in the summary penalty order that it did not identify that any Glencore employees had any knowledge of the bribery by the business partner, nor did Glencore benefit financially from the conduct of the business partner,” Glencore said in the statement.
A parallel investigation by the Dutch Prosecution Service has also been concluded and dismissed.
In 2022, the company agreed to pay the DRC government $180 million to settle other alleged corruption claims in the country between 2007 and 2018.
With the latest fine, Glencore will have paid at least $1.7 billion to resolve various investigations into bribery and corruption worldwide.
In 2022, the company plead guilty to corruption and market manipulation cases in the US and UK, admitting that it had paid bribes to win business in eight countries from Brazil to South Sudan.
(With files from Bloomberg)
ERA sues Australia’s resources minister after lease for uranium deposit not renewed
Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) said on Tuesday it was suing Australia’s resources minister and others after its lease for a high-grade uranium deposit was not renewed, saying it hadn’t been given the opportunity to make its case.
The proposed development of the Jabiluka uranium deposit in Australia’s Northern Territory, which is surrounded by the world heritage-listed Kakadu rainforest, has been strongly opposed by the local Mirarr people, and sparked some of the country’s biggest environmental protests in the late 1990s. Last month, the Northern Territory’s government, on advice from the federal government, declined to renew ERA’s Jabiluka lease. Shortly after, uranium miner Boss Energy withdrew an offer to pay ERA A$550 million ($360 million) for the site.
ERA said on Tuesday it had started legal proceedings against Resources Minister Madeleine King and the Northern Territory’s Minister for Mining Mark Monaghan as well as the Jabiluka Aboriginal Land Trust in the Federal Court of Australia.
It was “denied procedural fairness and natural justice in the decision-making process,” ERA argued in a statement, adding that it has asked the court to hear its application before the lease expires on August 11.
King’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rio Tinto, which owns roughly 80% of ERA but does not operate it, has said it will not support any development of the project given the Mirarr people’s opposition.
(By Shivangi Lahiri and Melanie Burton; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Edwina Gibbs)
