Antinuclear

Federal nod for Cameco’s Yeelirrie uranium mine hinges on WA court challenge https://www.kalminer.com.au/?business/mining/federal-nod-for-camecos-yeelirrie-uranium-mine-hinges-on-wa-court-challenge-ng-b881003720z

Josh Chiat
Sunday, 28 October 2018 The Federal Government will not make a decision on approving a contentious uranium mine in the northern Goldfields until an appeal against WA’s decision to give it the green light is complete.

It means the environmental status of Australia’s largest undeveloped uranium deposit, Canadian major Cameco’s Yeelirrie project near Wiluna, will likely remain uncertain until at least the second half of 2019, almost three years after its approval by former WA environment minister Albert Jacob.

Yeelirrie is particularly sensitive because WA’s Environmental Protection Authority initially recommended it be refused on the basis it would make 11 species of rare subterranean invertebrates, known as stygofauna, extinct.

WA-based Federal Environment Minister Melissa Price, whose sprawling Durack electorate includes Yeelirrie, told the Kalgoorlie Miner a legal challenge led by anti-nuclear campaigners and a handful of traditional owners was one reason for the delay, with Cameco previously stating it believed the process would be complete early this year.

“My department advised that it was prudent to wait for the result of the WA Supreme Court proceedings before finalising the Federal assessment,” she said.

“This ensures that we know the State decision is valid and we can avoid overlapping with any State approval conditions.”

A Cameco spokesman said the company was working with Ms Price to achieve an outcome as soon as possible.

The Conservation Council of WA is hopeful of winning a second appeal against Mr Jacob’s decision in WA’s Supreme Court, after an initial challenge was thrown out in February.

Even if the action is unsuccessful the delay could buy opponents of the mine time to see out the conservative Morrison Government and leave the final decision in the hands of a Labor minister, with a hearing not expected to take place until next year.

The group’s director Piers Verstegen said it would be “irresponsible” for Ms Price to make a decision on the project while the legal action was afoot.

Yeelirrie was discovered by Western Mining Corporation in 1972 and prepared for development in the early 1980s before Labor leader Bob Hawke’s defeat of Malcolm Fraser in 1983 brought in the “three mine policy”, halting new uranium developments.

It was sold for $430 million to Cameco by BHP in 2012, but the 128 million-pound yellowcake deposit has remained on ice since then in the face of a subdued uranium market and tricky approvals process.

Federal Labor does not currently oppose the development of uranium mines, unlike their WA counterparts who agreed to let Yeelirrie and three other mines in WA, approved under the watch of the Barnett government, be mined in the future on ‘sovereign risk’ grounds.

Mr Verstegen claimed Mr Jacob’s Yeelirrie decision set a bad precedent for future decisions on developments that posed a threat to wildlife.

“The legal precedent is the same, it could be applied to any species that could be signed off for extinction by the minister,” he argued.

“We’re taking that very seriously and that’s why we’re taking these steps to challenge it in the courts.”