DEBATE still rages over a Western Australian Government plan to expand a Goldfields nature reserve.
Miners succeeded in getting State Cabinet on Monday to review an earlier Government approval to more than double the 150,000 hectare Mount Manning Range A-class nature reserve north of Southern Cross.
Instead a conservation park, where mining does not require parliamentary approval, is now proposed for the area along with a working group to take the park forward. Despite the Government back down, the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies says the decision is still flawed due to a lack of consultation and a failure to recognise up to $45 million invested in the area by miners.
“It is entirely possible that these areas will be permanently closed off by the EPA without industry consultation,” AMEC CEO Justin Walawski said.
Instead he called for a dual use classification for the reserve; immed-iate discussions with industry; and the development of a plan to manage environmentally sensitive areas.
Heron Resources managing director Ian Buchorn, whose company controls some of the affected ground, said the move was in part a positive, however industry still required more certainty.
He said the State Liberal Party’s more resource development-friendly environment made more sense.
Environment Minister Judy Edwards said she wanted to reassure the industry that “proposals already in the system could proceed through”.
Chamber of Minerals and Energy spokesman David Parker cautiously welcomed the decision.