Australia rejects plan to expand mining at sacred Aboriginal site

The decision comes after a scandal in 2020 with an outbreak in Western Australia state of juukan gorge cave, a 46,000-year-old site considered sacred by an Aboriginal community.

Swiss group Glencore had applied for permission to dump flammable rocks at an altitude of 140 metres, near the sacred site where Baramundi dreams, in order to double the amount of lead and zinc mining, over the next fifteen years, operating through a subsidiary.

The mining giant relied on approval received from six of the 180 Aboriginal Defenders, which some of the site’s owners have disputed.

Protected sacred sites

Northern Territory Heritage Minister chancy Bache this week rejected Glencore’s request to cancel the Aboriginal Areas Conservation Commission’s decision.

Benedict scambari, director general of the authority, said that the minister’s decision makes clear that “the safety of sacred sites is not a checkbox and not an obstacle to cordoning off.”

The Glencore subsidiary said on Wednesday it intends to continue negotiating a land use deal with the owners.

Parliamentary inquiry conducted later, at the end of 2020 Destruction of an Aboriginal site by Rio Tinto Glencore had recommended that the indigenous community compensate, rebuild the destroyed site and ensure that Respect a ban Permanent in terms of mining in the region.

Glencore said on Tuesday it had returned to full-year profit of nearly $ 5 billion in 2021, up from a loss of $ 1.9 billion a year earlier, and revealed it had set aside $ 1.5 billion on that occasion case rules.