The Northern Territory’s government has committed to start rehabilitating one of the top end's most toxic abandoned mines within months. While that's been welcomed, a proposal to do it in conjunction with re-starting mining at the old Redbank copper site is being opposed by Indigenous custodians.
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00:00The abandoned Red Bank copper mine deep in the Gulf of Carpentaria is one of the NT's
00:08most toxic weeping sores. It's leaking battery-strength acid over 40 kilometres to Queensland. Since
00:16it collapsed 30 years ago, traditional owners have been demanding a clean-up.
00:21They keep telling us, you know, they can fix their mine, they can try to get something
00:27up and running but nothing. Now the NT government's told the ABC rehabilitation
00:33will start within months. We're planning on getting that site worked
00:37and some water work starts this dry season. Green groups are pleased, but worried the
00:42government's $88m legacy mines rehab fund isn't big enough to fix Red Bank, plus dozens
00:50of other sites. It's quite likely that due to the extent of
00:53pollution at Red Bank that we could be looking at a rehabilitation bill of hundreds of millions
00:58of dollars. The company that has the mining lease over
01:00Red Bank and thousands of square kilometres around it is offering to help fund rehabilitation
01:07as part of a proposal to resume mining. It makes economic sense and I think it makes
01:13social sense if there is the ability to incorporate into another mine because it just becomes
01:18part of the costs of the mining operation. The government is yet to agree.
01:24There won't be any special treatment. We make sure that the environment is put first in
01:27Northern Territory. Red Bank's senior traditional owners and green
01:31groups are opposed. There is absolutely no way that mining should
01:35be occurring in that area. The minister is promising other legacy mines
01:39will also be fixed. And we also make sure that the new mines which
01:44are opening now and when mining is occurring across the Northern Territory, this won't
01:47occur again. The government has an uphill battle to convince
01:51traditional owners who control half of the territory that legacy mines will be remediated
01:57and so it's safe to agree to new ones.