Tas mine assessment angers green groups

25 Jul 2012, 6:25 pm   -   Source: AAP

The debate over mining in Tasmania's Tarkine region has heated up after a decision from federal Environment Minister Tony Burke.

Environmentalists are furious that two contentious mines proposed for Tasmania's Tarkine region are to be assessed separately rather than as the same project.

Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke has announced that Venture Minerals' Riley and Livingstone hematite mines will be assessed as "single actions" by the Tasmanian Environment Protection Authority.

The mines are planned as precursors to a larger, open-cut mine proposed for nearby Mt Lindsay.

The Tarkine region, in Tasmania's northwest, is home to Australia's largest tract of temperate rainforest and a population of Tasmanian devils free of the facial tumour disease that has wiped out 80 per cent of the species.

The Tarkine National Coalition said Mr Burke was handballing the environmental assessment process to a mine-happy state government that had fast-tracked another mine in the area.

"It should have been done through the commonwealth and it should have been done as a cumulative assessment," the group's spokesman Scott Jordan told AAP.

"They're all part of the same project.

"These mines will be fast-tracked and, come late this year or early next year, the reality is we're looking at the next Franklin blockade.

"People across Australia ... can't believe that in 2012 we have a government willing to consider a Pilbara-style open-cut mine in Australia's largest temperate rainforest."

Mr Burke said the proposals would face a rigorous assessment under national environmental law.

"This assessment process ... will look at each project's potential impacts on nationally protected matters, including threatened species such as the Tasmanian devil," he said in a statement.

Mr Burke said the process would still allow him to consider the cumulative effects of various projects in the region.

Greens leader Christine Milne condemned the decision.

"Venture Minerals has been open about the fact that it has fast-tracked these two mines in order to raise capital for its major tin mine operations centred around Mt Lindsay," Senator Milne said.

"It is shameful and farcical for Minister Burke to pretend these aren't all part of a larger project."

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