Environmental issues in the Mid West could be overcome with a more planned approach.
WHILE the Environmental Impact Assessment for Chevron's Gorgon gas project stole all the headlines last week, another decision has pricked the ears of the mining community, which wants a more holistic approach to the approvals process.
Two days before the Environmental Protection Authority recommendation on Gorgon, it had released a pair of reports on two adjoining areas which Gindalbie Metals wants to mine.
In what seems to be a surprise to those involved, the EPA's assessment includes the prospect of a Class A Nature Reserve, which would include one of three iron ore deposits Gindalbie wanted to mine, a site called Terapod.
The problem for Gindalbie appears to lie partly in the discovery, as part of the approvals process, of a distinct species of Acacia tree, which we generally call wattle, as well as a small grassy sedge called Lepidosperma, in the banded ironstone formations that litter the Mid West and are thought to have evolved into biodiverse islands amid the plains in between.
To the untrained eye, it's hard to believe the area has important conservation values. That has been the view for more than a century, a period which includes extensive farming, pastoral and mining in the area.
But modern conservation thinking now recognises that Western Australia, due to its age, vast size and a harsh and varied climate, is one of the most biodiverse regions in the world.
The Mid West region of the state is part of that, including Gindalbie's leases over an area collectively known as the Karara/Mungada/Blue Hills area.
While that excites biologists, for the mining community it creates a massive headache for miners because it seems that wherever they look for minerals, they find a new species that is inevitably labelled rare and endangered because no-one knows anything about it.
In recognising the conservation values, Gindalbie proposed it would relinquish the eastern-most Mungada lease as well as offering additional research and improved land management, including providing a nearby pastoral station for conservation purposes.
In return, it wanted to mine the Karara and Blue Hills, the latter it insists includes the Terapod ore body.
Instead, the EPA included the Terapod ore body in the reservation mooted for Mungada Ridge. In addition, the whole area had been proposed a Class A Nature Reserve, at the very top level of protection, which could lock away an ore body of potential value.
"In April 2009, the Liberal-National Government advised that a portion of the Mungada Ridge, which was located in the Blue Hills Range, would be set aside as a Class A Nature Reserve and protected from development," Premier Colin Barnett said in a statement released the day of the EPA recommendation.
"The EPA had supported this approach as one of the main conditions that would enable the project to go ahead."
According to a spokeperson for Environment Minister Donna Faragher, EPA's decision came after it sought her advice on the government's position. "Advice was received from Gindalbie that they were prepared to relinquish one of their tenements, over the Mungada Ridge," Mrs Faragher said in a statement provided to WA Business News.
"I have advised the EPA that in the event it is determined that the Gindalbie project proposal can be implemented, through processes pursuant to the Environmental Protection Act 1986, the government will accept Gindalbie's offer to relinquish the tenement and will place a Mining Act section 19 exemption over the relinquished area.
"The government also commits to the establishment of a Class A Nature Reserve reservation over the relinquished area, noting its high conservation status."
However, she said the final boundaries of the A Class Nature Reserve are yet to be determined, a fact that may come as some relief to the mining company.
While Gindalbie, one of the most financially robust players in the Mid West, still has plenty of scope to develop its Karara and Blue Hills deposits, it is weighing up whether to appeal the EPA recommendations.
Welcoming the go-ahead for mining in the area, Geraldton Iron Ore Alliance chief executive Rob Jefferies is uncomfortable about the unexpected proposal for a Class A Nature Reserve - notably without the consideration of social and economic ramifications which gave it the appearance of policy on the run.
"Where an A-class reserve gets proposed as part of an environmental process that is an issue of concern," Mr Jefferies said.
"We can't deny that. It is not the best way to create a reserve."
The EPA disagrees that the reserve was developed as part of the approval process, but said the scale of the area's biodiversity that emerged from information gathered for the mining proposals created the need for such a reserve.
Without enough information to make its own decision, and thereby hold up the whole process, the EPA said it left it to the state to decide, as Mrs Faragher has acknowledged.
Mr Jefferies said that the GIOA is seeking to engage with government to promote a more holistic view of the area's environment, to broaden the understanding of the region's wildlife, its management and the impact that has on the community.
For instance, the Department of Environment and Conservation now owns several pastoral leases in the area and industry could help with the cost of maintaining them, especially with the programs such as feral goat control.
But this is just a small part of a wider effort underway to rein in the issue of WA's biodiversity, which proved a huge headache to a number of projects in recent years with the discovery of spiders and orchids at inconvenient moments.
Just like native title claims before it, the lack of knowledge about WA's biodiversity has emerged as new barrier.
The EPA, supported by the state, has acknowledged the need for reform in a recently announced series of improvements to its assessment process.
Among its key recommendations was a shared government-industry environmental data system to allow more informed project planning by industry, better decision-making by government and reduced duplication of effort and expenditure across the board.
While the cost is unknown, the industry acknowledges this is a step in the right direction by attempting to make more transparent the process by which those who want to develop resources confront the task of assessing the environmental impact.
The Chamber of Minerals and Energy, which has held behind-the-scenes discussions with various non-government conservation bodies to try to tackle the great unknowns of WA's biodiversity, called for a more consistent and strategic land-use planning process.
"CME considers that a comprehensive understanding of the state's biodiversity, along with prospectivity for resources, is central to this work," CME chief executive Reg Howard-Smith said in a statement to WA Business News.
"Sound information on the values of particular areas are critical to decisions for sustainable resource development and to allow for integrated, timely, science-based solutions to land-use planning issues.
"Knowledge of the biodiversity, mineral and other values should be a fundamental part of holistic regional planning, in addition to its critical significance in approvals processes for resources development projects."
