Aboriginal people will fight planned Vimy uranium mine, despite EPA’s approoval of it
Indigenous people living in the area have a bad history with uranium developments. It’s a few hundred kilometres from Cundalee, the mission where Spinifex people from the Great Victoria Desert were placed after being pushed off their traditional lands by the British government’s nuclear testing program in Maralinga, South Australia, in the 1950s and 60s
Pilanguru people to fight on as uranium mine gets environmental approval
Traditional owners say the Indigenous community has not been adequately consulted about Vimy Resources’ planned Mulga Rock open-pit mine, Guardian, Calla Wahlquist, 15 Aug 16, Traditional owners have vowed to fight a proposed uranium mine at Mulga Rock, about 240km west of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, which was given conditional environmental approval on Monday.
The Environmental Protection Authority of WA recommended the Barnett government approve construction of the open-pit mine and uranium processing plant, operated by Perth-based Vimy Resources Limited, after a three-month public environmental review.
The proposed project would mine 4.5m tonnes of ore a year, processed down to 1,360 tonnes of uranium oxide concentrate, which would be trucked to Port Adelaide in sealed steel drums.
It would require the clearing of 3,787ha of native vegetation, the preferred habitat of the endangered sandhill dunnart, which the proposal says would be rehabilitated at the end of the mine’s 16-year life.
Tailings from the uranium processing would be stored in above-ground storage facilities for the first 18 months before being moved into in-ground tailings pits that would be capped and covered once the site was decommissioned.
Bruce Hogan, the chair of the Pilanguru Native Title Group, said he and other traditional owners planned to fight the proposal and claimed the company had not adequately consulted the Aboriginal community.
The area was subject to a native title claim by the Wongatha people but that was rejected by the federal court in 2007.
Two of the sites are in areas slated for development and at least one is expected to be affected by land clearing and excavation.
“We use to go out there with our elders,” Hogan said. “We can’t see how this mine could go ahead.
“The seven sisters’ tjukupa [Dreaming] goes through there and the two wadis [lore men] went through that area too. The elders use to take us there for cultural practice, they would leave us there for a few days and then come back to pick us up.
“We don’t want that mine to go ahead. We will fight against that mine at Mulga Rock.”
Indigenous people living in the area have a bad history with uranium developments. It’s a few hundred kilometres from Cundalee, the mission where Spinifex people from the Great Victoria Desert were placed after being pushed off their traditional lands by the British government’s nuclear testing program in Maralinga, South Australia, in the 1950s and 60s…….https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/15/pilanguru-people-fight-uranium-mine-approval-vimy-resources-mulga-rock-western-australia
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