Antinuclear

Judge rules for Aboriginal landowners against mining company

`The native title in the land of the traditional owners in preventing mining are significant and genuine,” he said…. ‘the Kokatha people’s genuine, longstanding and consistently voiced opposition to mining weighed against approval.’

SA judge’s blow to Straits, Argonaut | Perth Now, 17 Jan 2011, A SOUTH Australian court has denied Straits Resources and its joint venture partner Argonaut Resources the rights to explore a region around Lake Torrens. Judge Sydney Tilmouth delivered a scathing judgment on Friday, which said the public interest in exploring a geological anomaly below Lake Torrens was only marginal. Lake Torrens is a salt lake about 60 kilometres north of Port Augusta in South Australia.

The traditional owners, the Kokatha people, had opposed the operations due to the significance of the area to them.Argonaut currently holds 100 per cent of the EL 4296 permit at the lake viasubsidiary Kelaray Pty, with Straits able to boost its interest to 70 per cent through expenditure.

The area has been described by Argonaut as a target bigger than the mighty Olympic Dam deposit, with a “massive” copper-gold target.

But Judge Tilmouth said the relatively scant material presented to the court showed the potential of the permit had been “overstated”.

“The native title in the land of the traditional owners in preventing mining are significant and genuine,” he said.

The judge was particularly scathing of the actions of the miners and said the significance of the area to the Kokatha had not been sufficiently appreciated.

`The fundamental shortcomings of the applicants in the field, the failure to secure adequate consents and the posture of avoiding scrutiny and accountability for precipitous decision making, tell heavily against the proposed mining operations going ahead,” Judge Tilmouth said.

He said the Kokatha people’s genuine, longstanding and consistently voiced opposition to mining weighed against approval.

“The applicants’ breach of the exploration licence together with their violations of the rights and interests of the Kokatha, especially Straits’ unacceptable, unforgivable and unaccountable resolve to continue the drilling to further its own ends at the expense of other interests, tell heavily against it,” he said.

Judge Tilmouth said the miners’ case was not helped by a somewhat jaundiced presentation of the evidence and “the affront inherent in the failure to explain why mining continued, compounded by the failure to make those in responsible executive positions accountable”.

SA judge’s blow to Straits, Argonaut | Perth Now

January 18, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | aboriginal issues, legal, South Australia | South Australia