Traditional owners say 'no' to Jabiluka uranium
By Susan Laszlo
The battle to preserve the unique wilderness of Kakadu, safeguarded by Aboriginal people for some 60,000 years, has reached a critical point. By August, Energy Resources of Australia is confident it will have government approval to mine uranium and gold at Jabiluka.
The country's traditional owners, the Mirrar people, organised through the Gundjehmi Aboriginal Corporation, are implacably opposed to the mine.
"The Jabiluka deposit is 10 minutes from our communities, 500 metres from a major wetland system and is enclosed within Kakadu National Park. One spill from the proposed mine will mean that the natural and cultural values of Kakadu National Park would be obliterated forever. Genocide will be the result for our community and ecocide for the World Heritage listed National Park", they said on May 5.
Under the Coalition's open-slather uranium policy, both Roxby and Ranger have been given the go-ahead to expand, and there are more uranium sites being considered in WA and the Northern Territory.
So keen is the government to fast-track Jabiluka that deputy PM Tim Fischer virtually gave ERA, which is part-owned by the French nuclear utility COGEMA, the go-ahead before the draft environment impact statement (EIS) had even been lodged.
"We've got a narrow window of opportunity to start up some clean [sic] new uranium mines ... we can stuff around and see another mine open in Canada, with jobs going to Canada, or we can get on with it and have more jobs in Western Australia, Northern Territory and elsewhere from processing Jabiluka properly, but quickly", Fischer told Channel 7's Face to Face program.
But as the Mirrar clan leaders argue: "Mining will not solve the economic problems for Australia. Short-term private company profits can't be measured against values which guarantee our survival."
On June 21, the traditional owners lodged a submission with the World Heritage Bureau of UNESCO, in Paris, requesting it to protect the cultural values of Kakadu. UNESCO maintains a register of all World Heritage-listed sites. Kakadu is one of fewer than 20 places listed for both natural and cultural values.
The submission argues that if Jabiluka is approved, it will have an adverse effect on Aboriginal people in the region.
"They want the World Heritage Bureau to recommend that Kakadu be placed on a special listing of World Heritage properties that are in danger, whose natural and cultural values are under threat", Dave Sweeney from the Australian Conservation Foundation told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly.
The ACF has also notified the World Heritage Bureau that, in its view, Jabiluka would have an adverse impact on the natural values of Kakadu.
Sham EIS
The traditional elders and environmentalists have slammed ERA's draft EIS. "The Jabiluka proposal is for a company to mine uranium, in a national park, adjacent to a World Heritage area. You'd expect a rigorous look at what's going on, but the EIS didn't even discuss the long-term effects of uranium mining, nor whether there should be a uranium mine in Kakadu at all", said Sweeney.
Even Environment Australia's World Heritage Unit (the branch of the environment department which monitors Australia's World Heritage listings) criticised the EIS, Sweeney told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly.
"It said that there hadn't been sufficient awareness displayed on a range of possible impacts on World Heritage values, that there needed to be a lot more talk with Aboriginal people and that Jabiluka proposals should not be fast-tracked."
The current system allows proponents of projects to put the EIS together. The result is more a "project advocacy document" than an EIS. "ERA had direct input into developing its EIS", Sweeney said, as did its environmental consultant, Kinhill.
The EIS was lodged with environment minister Robert Hill's office on June 17. Hill has two options: within 21 days he can ask ERA for further information or clarification or, after 42 days, he can make a recommendation which is then passed to Senator Warwick Parer, minister for mining and resources.
In another attempt to stop the fast-tracking of Jabiluka, Yvonne Margarula, a senior owner, is challenging the validity of ERA's mineral licence in the Federal Court. The hearing is scheduled for July 3.
Under the Atomic Energy Act and NT Self-Government Act, export licences for uranium can be approved only by the Commonwealth. Since the Jabiluka mineral lease was granted by the NT government, the traditional owners argue that it is invalid.
Jabiluka, previously known as Ranger II or North Ranger, was acquired for $125 million by ERA from Pancontinental in 1991. Pancontinental's EIS was submitted in 1979, and all mining and environmental approvals were granted by 1982. An agreement with the Northern Lands Council (NLC), representing the traditional owners, was approved by the minister for Aboriginal affairs in 1982.
Hill has been arguing that some traditional owners agree with the Jabiluka project. They do not; they are unequivocal in their opposition to it, as a statement released last October by the senior traditional owners Yvonne Margarula, Jacob Nayinggul and Bill Niedjie makes clear:
"We have many concerns about mining in our country. We do not feel that our people or our country have been protected since mining came here. Government has forced us to accept mining in the past and we are concerned that you will force mining development upon us again. Previous mining agreements have not protected us or given our communities strength to survive development.
"A new mine will make our future worthless and destroy more of our country. We oppose any further mining development in our country ..."
Under the NT Land Rights Act, the NLC has a statutory obligation to represent the wishes of the traditional owners. But the NLC has yet to abide by the wishes of the Gundjehmi that royalties from Jabiluka be handed back to ERA. Instead, the NLC has established a trust fund, hoping that the traditional owners will change their minds.
Radioactivity
While ERA is planning an underground mine, which would cause less surface disturbance at Jabiluka, it would place an additional burden on the Ranger mine, which is having water and long-term tailings disposal problems.
From material on the public record, ACF has documented 96 accidental or deliberate releases of material from Ranger, infringements of environmental requirements and all sorts of procedural and production errors.
"Every wet season ERA act like it's the first time it's ever rained in the Top End, and they start to shunt contaminated water into the surrounding waterways", said Sweeney. "Every year there is seepage from Ranger's tailings dam in excess of 220,000 cubic metres of material per year.
"If you dump an extra 20 million tonnes of radioactive waste — which Jabiluka would mean — plus the extra throughput of ore at Ranger's mill and the extra water burden, it will overburden and ultimately crack the entire water and tailings management regime in Kakadu."
Even the Ranger Uranium Inquiry, which investigated the development of uranium reserves in the region in the late 1970s advocated that new mines be established only after the old ones had been closed.
Radioactive tailings can cause lung cancer, leukaemia, birth defects and many other health problems. The inhalation or ingestion of only one third of a gram of tailings dust per year — equivalent to the volume of about five grains of wheat — exceeds the allowable dose limit. The Ranger tailings dam is about one square kilometre in size and some 30 metres deep.
Today's standards requires safe storage for only 300 years. However, after 300 years, the tailings retain 99% of their radioactivity.
Solidarity
In their fight to stop a new uranium mine, the Mirrar people have travelled to Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra twice in the last year. They have also travelled overseas to seek international solidarity; they have taken national legal action; sent letters to every government agency and stakeholder; fronted the Commonwealth and NT governments and the company at its headquarters and in Kakadu.
Anti-nuclear, environment and student groups around the country have supported the struggle. Motions of support have been passed by the ACT Trades and Labour Council and the Victorian Trades Hall Council.
But as crunch time approaches, the fight has to be stepped up. As Sweeney puts it: "The Gundjehmi people have put their hands up for the last 12 months and said they do not want Jabiluka to go ahead.
"Every person, organisation, political grouping and agency in this country that respects the environment and the wishes of indigenous people has to speak up and get active now, because now is when it counts."