Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has insisted Regis Resources’ McPhillamys gold project is not dead, despite controversially blocking a critical tailings dam at the site.
Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has insisted Regis Resources’ McPhillamys gold project is not dead, despite controversially blocking a critical tailings dam at the site last month.
Ms Plibersek last month blocked part of the fully approved, billion-dollar McPhillamys gold project on the grounds of in-confidence Aboriginal cultural heritage concerns disclosed to her by a local Traditional Owner group under section 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act.
The decision prompted outcry from resources sector groups this side of the Nullarbor, including at Perth-headquartered Regis, which wrote the value of the McPhillamys asset down to zero and told the market its options to proceed were limited.
The company acquired the project in 2012, and completed a definitive feasibility study on it less than a month before the minister’s decision was announced.
In a press conference today, Ms Plibersek defended her decision to block the dam and reiterated her insistence that the gold project could go ahead.
“My decision is that the tailings dam cannot be built on the headwaters of the river,” she said.
“That’s about 16 per cent of the site that [Regis] owns already, and they’ve told us they’ve investigated four sites for the tailings dam.
“I certainly would urge them to have a look at some of the other sites that they’ve investigated.”
Regis has told the market that none of the four sites it assessed would be viable as a tailings dam option following the decision, and that it would be required to return to the lengthy approvals process of between five and ten years should it explore a tailings dam move.
Business News understands three of the four sites which were considered as part of the project planning are within the exclusion zone set by Ms Plibersek's section 10 call.
The fourth was deemed inferior, and was ranked worst for environmental impact.
Ms Plibersek defended her record of project approvals and cast doubt on Regis’ timeframes – pointing to a recent, unspecified nine-week project approval.
“We can do these things very quickly when the projects are designed right, to avoid unnecessary impacts on the environment,” she said.
“I’ve ticked off on more than 40 mining projects – you haven’t heard about them in the media.
“They’ve been uncontroversial because they’ve been designed right and ticked off, many of them with conditions to reduce environmental impacts or protect cultural heritage.
“That’s the system working well, that’s how the system can work.”
The minister put the ball back in the court of the Jim Beyer-led company to work through the challenges of the section 10 and relocate the tailings facility.
“I’m not going to try and design their tailings dam in a press conference,” she said.
“This is a large company, they’ve got geologists and hydrologists and engineers available to them.
“If there is seven billion dollars worth of gold in the ground, as they have suggested, it’s probably in their interest to put a bit of time and energy into looking at alternatives.
“But it’s up to them. It’s their project.”
The federal Greens were also in the firing line at today’s press conference, where the minister announced $8.3 million in funding for new equipment at Veolia’s Bibra Lake recycling facility.
The government’s second tranche of Nature Positive legislation which would set up a federal Environmental Protection Authority body recently passed the House of Reps but faces scrutiny in the upper house at the hands of the Greens.
The environmentally focused party has suggested the federal EPA would be a toothless tiger, a call strongly rebuked by Ms Plibersek today.
“A strong EPA is something that Australia has never had,” she said.
“This is an Australian first, and it actually blows me away that anyone in the Greens political party would think that this is unimportant.
“This is something that the environmental movement has been demanding for many, many years.”
Ms Plibersek also weighed in on the fate of WA Liberal MP Ian Goodenough, who lost the preselection battle for Moore despite being the incumbent.
Rumours have swirled that Mr Goodenough may have explored jumping side to the federal Labor Party.
Ms Plibersek played a straight bat to those rumblings.
“He’s a very nice fellow, and I know that he, sadly, has been disendorsed by the Liberal Party over here despite his hard work in his constituency,” she said.
“I don’t have any knowledge other than that. He’s a very nice man.”
Recycling spend revealed
Veolia was one of a number of WA recycling initiatives to federal investment in today's announcement by the minister.
AusWaste Recycling was the biggest beneficiary, receiving $10 million towards a facility to process 50,000 tonnes of paper and cardboard waste each year.
Today’s announcement comes three-and-a-half years after the state and federal governments said they would contribute $30 million toward an $86 million pulp mill to be developed jointly by Auswaste and global waste company Suez.
That project, designed to recycle 100,000 tonnes per year of paper and cardboard, did not proceed.
The recent state waste infrastructure plan identified the lack of cardboard and paper recycling facilities in Perth as WA’s top issue.
It predicted Perth will need facilities to process 391,000 tonnes of cardboard and paper by 2030, if the state is to meet its waste recycling goals.
Matters Enterprises will get $5 million to set up an end-of-life, off-the-road tyre collection, sorting and grading hub in Newman.
Pro-Pac Packaging Group will get $2.5 million towards upgrades at its industrial and agricultural manufacturing facility in Kewdale.
A grant of $8.5 million will be given to Remondis to expand its plastic waste processing in Jandakot, and CTS Tyre Recycling will get $4.5 million to expand its tyre rubber crumb recycling program at Neerabup.
In a statement, CTS said the investment wuold allow it to add major additional capacity to its Neerabup operations - including remanufacturing.
“This is a really exciting development, not just for us as a company, but for the broader push towards sustainability,” managing director Leigh Cometti said.
“We will not only be recycling, we will be remanufacturing.
“Until relatively recent times, we took materials from the Earth, made products from those materials, and eventually threw the products away as waste; a simple linear process. And that is what generally happens with the largest mining tyres.
“In a circular economy, by contrast and where we can, we stop waste being produced in the first place. And we find ways to reuse, or recirculate, waste materials, preferably at their highest value.”
D&M Waste Management has received $4.3 million worth of Pilbara land to allow it to establish an end-of-life pipe management system for remote minesites. East-West Pilbara Rubber Recycling will be given $675,000 worth of land to set up an off-the-road tyre recycling facility at Port Hedland.
The Shire of Exmouth will get $255,000 for a horizontal bailer machine and storage facility.
