Regis McPhillamy’s gold mine: Miners warn Tanya Plibersek’s decision sets ‘terrible precedent’

A $1 billion gold mining project that industry says could have brought in $200m in royalties to NSW and hundreds of jobs to the state’s central west is “not viable” after the Environment Minister sent the company back to the drawing board over contested Indigenous heritage claims.

Tanya Plibersek opted to override the federal environment department and NSW planning approval and deny Regis McPhillamy’s proposal to build a mine outside Orange, four years after a Wiraduryi elder submitted a section 10 application to the department over concerns the project would destroy songlines.

The Coalition says her decision opens a “Pandora’s box”, given the local land council had downplayed concerns, and prompted mining industry heavyweights to warn it’s a sign of what’s to come with Labor’s contentious Nature Positive Legislation.

In her decision, Ms Plibersek cited the company’s proposal to build a tailings dam would “destroy” a “significant Aboriginal site”, despite the local land council taking umbrage.

“Because I accept that the headwaters of the Belubula River are of particular significance to the Wiradjuri/Wiradyuri people in accordance with their tradition, I have decided to protect them,” Ms Plibersek said.

She said the decision, made under section 10s of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Protection Act, was not to “stop the mine”, and that the company could find an alternative location for the dam — a crucial part of a mine that stores leftover materials from ore processing — before going through the process again.

But in a statement to shareholders on Monday, Regis said the decision meant the entire project, which would have generated jobs and attracted $1b in investment, was “not viable”.

Regis said it had made clear to Ms Plibersek throughout the protracted four-year saga that while a number of alternatives had been considered early in the design process, there were no other options for the infrastructure.

Chief executive and managing director Jim Beyer said the company was “extremely surprised and disappointed” in Ms Plibersek’s decision, noting the four-year “protracted” assessment process.

“This has effectively overridden the conclusions on this question that were already determined by the NSW Independent Planning Commission and Minister Plibersek on approving the project under the EPBC Act,” Mr Beyer said in the ASX statement.

“The referral made by Regis under the Act included an assessment of Aboriginal cultural heritage, which at that time, the Minister’s delegate did not note as a point of concern for the Project.”

The local land council itself, which neither supported nor opposed the mine, questioned in its submission the authenticity of those opposing the site on Indigenous heritage grounds.

The Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council noted the identified items of Aboriginal cultural heritage which would have been impacted could have been “properly managed and protected”, and that people without the “experience, expertise and authority” were making claims not substantiated by the council.

“We question the motives of people and organisations who participate in pro­moting unsubstantiated claims and seek to hijack Aboriginal ­Cultural Heritage in order to push other agendas,” it wrote in its January 2023 submission.

The Coalition’s Indigenous Australians spokeswoman, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, said the decision undermined Labor’s commitment to Indigenous economic development.

“We cannot hope to encourage Indigenous economic independence while at the same time allowing a Minister to block projects at the eleventh hour which have otherwise been through due process on the basis of a small number of objections. To do so poses a serious threat to economic development for Indigenous Australians,” she said.

The mining industry claimed the Act had been weaponised by green activists to block projects that otherwise met all required state and federal development approvals, and warned it lacked “reason and common sense” and set a “terrible precedent” as the federal parliament dukes out the final form of Labor’s contentious Nature Positive Bill.

The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies said it would mean $200m of royalties to the state, 580 construction jobs and 290 operational jobs would go “up in smoke” and would dis-incentivise investment out of fear a small number of people could derail projects.

“If any project, no matter how thoroughly consulted, negotiated, supported and assessed, can be knocked over by the objections of only a few people at the end of the process, then how can any company or investor have the confidence to invest in Australia,” chief executive officer Warren Pearce said.

“The absolute absurdity of this decision is that in upholding the Section 10 Objection the Minister has chosen to ignore the views of the recognised Traditional Owners for this country (the Orange Local Aboriginal Corporation), who did not object to the Project.

“They could see the value and future prosperity that this project could bring to their people. It’s a shame the Minister didn’t listen to them while purporting to protect their interests.

“Absolutely nobody benefits from this decision. Not the local community, not Traditional Owners, not the State of New South Wales nor the industry. It’s a lose, lose, lose.”

The Coalition’s environment spokesman, Jonno Duniam, said the decision had opened a “Pandora’s box of projects that the minister could reject tomorrow which severely affects our sovereign capabilities”.

“After ticking every environmental approval box possible and with mines already taking up to sixteen years to get approved, the decision is further proof that the Labor Government will go to any length to stop developments, all in the name of harvesting Greens votes in inner-city electorates,” Senator Duniam said.

“This is the most anti-jobs, anti-development government Australia has ever had and this decision is proof positive of that.

“Tanya Plibersek is willing to go to these lengths to block productive projects and with them, hundreds of jobs and billions in investment.”

Mr Pearce said the decision suggested a hint of what was to come under Labor’s controversial Nature Positive plan.

“If this is what industry can currently expect from the Federal Government, what exactly is in store for us if the Government’s new Nature Positive legislation is introduced,” he said.

A senate inquiry report probing laws to establish a federal Environmental Protection Agency was due to be tabled on Monday but has been delayed.