Green light for $5billion Yakabindie nickel project

9/1/03
Indigenous Affairs Minister Alan Carpenter announced today he had approved a section 18 application under the Aboriginal Heritage Act for a nickel mining operation in the north-eastern Goldfields.
Mr Carpenter said the application, from Yakabindie Nickel Pty Ltd and WMC Resources Ltd, was the third time a section 18 had been sought for essentially the same proposed mine and associated infrastructure.
The previous two applications, in 1990 and 1997, had both been approved.
"It is an unfortunate characteristic of section 18 approvals that they lapse when ownership of a project changes," the Minister said.
"The result is an unnecessary bureaucratic repetition which needs to be addressed by a change to the legislation to allow approval to be transferred if ownership of a project changes."
WMC Resources Ltd claims that during the 15-year life of the Yakabindie Nickel Project, it would employ about 400 people, generate revenue of up to $5billion and have considerable flow-on benefits for the region and the State.
Mr Carpenter said he had not agreed with a recommendation from the Aboriginal Cultural Materials Committee that approval be declined.
Of several Aboriginal groups asserting an interest in the area, one - the Ngalia - had expressed opposition to the project on the basis that sites would be disturbed.
The same group had objected on the two previous occasions and had court action and an appeal to both the WA Supreme Court and the Federal Minister dismissed.
Despite ample time to do so, the group had declined to provide the ACMC with any written submission outlining the details of their case.
Mr Carpenter said numerous studies and surveys of the area and connections to it had been undertaken over a long period of time.
"From the large volume of material and information supplied to me, I have found nothing that would lead me to disagree with the decisions of my two predecessors in granting approval for the project," he said.
The mining would involve the development of the Six Mile, Goliath and Serp Hill deposits as open pits and a potential underground mine at Six Mile.
Minister's office: 9213 6800