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The NT Environmental Defenders Office has raised concerns the mining industry is over-represented on the mining board, which was set up and appointed by the former Country Liberals Government.
A new report revealed that a directive to Glencore's McArthur River Mine (MRM) by the Department of Primary Industry and Resources — formerly the Northern Territory Mines Department — was overruled by the Government-appointed mining board.
The report by the mine's independent monitor, the Erias Group, said the NT Mines Department made an order last year after officers on an MRM site visit reported "unapproved works" where waste rock containing metals and salt had been placed in a facility approved for benign material only.
"The use of non-benign material in close proximity to the McArthur River diversion channel and lack of adequate environmental controls represent a risk to the environment," the department's officers reported.
The department directed MRM to move the material but MRM appealed against the order to the Mining Board arguing the works were temporary.
The board, now also known as the Mining Advisory Committee, found in MRM's favour.
The principal lawyer from the NT Environmental Defenders Office, David Morris, said he was concerned the department's directive had been overruled.
"It's of concern to me that mining officers who go down and spend a significant amount of time on the site have said 'we think material has been placed inappropriately, we think that's putting the environment at risk' and the Mining Board said 'well no we're going to agree with Glencore who's appealed this decision'," Mr Morris said.
Board has authority to hear appeals
Phil Hausler from the Department of Primary Industry and Resource said the board had the authority to hear appeals.
"There is a review decision process outlined in the Mining Management Act and at the moment the Mining Board have that authority," he said.
At the time of the appeal, the chair of the Mining Board was Brian Hearne, the former General Manager of McArthur River Mine.
The NT Government said Mr Hearne declared a conflict of interest and was not involved in the review or the decision.
The majority of the board's members are former or current mining industry executives.
Mr Morris said he was concerned the mining industry was over-represented on the board and that the board's decisions and deliberations were not public.
"It's not a particularly transparent body, we don't get reasons for decisions, nothing's made publicly available," he said.
In its report, the independent monitor said it respected the board's findings but raised concerns about the impact of the decision.
"It is unclear what monitoring is currently underway to detect the migration of contaminants given that placement of such materials was not originally envisaged within this facility," the report said.
The report also found MRM complied with a separate government request to appoint a company to certify work on the mine's tailings storage facility (TSF) but that MRM appointed same company that had designed the TSF.
"We raised a concern that the designer of the TSF is also the same company who is the independent certified engineer and we believe those two roles need to be further clarified," David Brown from the Erias Group said.
The report said MRM had made improvements but still needed a long term plan for managing a large volume of waste rock to prevent acid, metals and salt leaching into the environment.
Topics: mining-environmental-issues, environment, mining-industry, industry, business-economics-and-finance, borroloola-0854
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