ERA signs new royalties deal with traditional owners

Energy Resources Australia has signed a new royalties deal with traditional owners of the Ranger uranium mine site in the Northern Territory.

Ranger uranium mine. (AAP)

(Transcript from World News Australia Radio)

With a renegotiated deal signed between mining company Energy Resources Australia and traditional owners of the Ranger uranium mine site in the Northern Territory, interested parties have begun looking to what the future might hold.

The new agreement replaces one from the late 1970s, which traditional owners had argued was unfair.

The Mirarr traditional owners of the Ranger mine site, located inside Kakadu National Park, have long argued the deal they signed in 1978 was forced on them.

Senior Mirarr traditional owner Yvonne Margarula has said her late father and other traditional owners only agreed to the Ranger mine because of constant pressure - from the Fraser government, and from the mining industry.

Justin O'Brien is the chief executive of the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation, which represents the Mirarr.

Mr O'Brien says the traditional owners, through the Northern Land Council, spent 13 years fighting the previous agreement.

"The history of uranium mining in Kakadu is disputed. The commencement of mining, the deprivation of people's rights and the denial of those rights over three decades can't be erased overnight. These things, they are real and the hurt went deep into the community and the divisions that mining brought into the community, they remain. However, this time, the traditional owners have had a degree of agency that was denied them back in the 1970s. So to that extent I think the Mirarr are happy. Yvonne is saying that she is happy, but again, this comes very late in the piece."

The updated deal will see the Mirarr receive an increased royalty, funds paid into a trust to deliver social initiatives in the local region and a plan to improve employment opportunities for local Aboriginal people.

It also establishes a relationship committee to share information between Energy Resources Australia, known as ERA, and traditional owners.

ERA chief executive Rob Atkinson says the signing of the revised deal reflects an improved relationship between the company and traditional owners.

"The importance of this long-outstanding agreement being signed really signifies that the relationship is better and is strengthening and I think that certainly bodes well for both of our futures and I certainly look forward to working closely with the Mirarr, continuing to listen to them and to continue to deal with the concerns that they may still have."

The agreement does not relate to any future mining that may occur on the site and mining of the open cut pit has already concluded, although processing of ore on the site is expected to continue until 2020.

ERA is investigating the feasibility of extending the mine's life by moving operations underground to the Ranger 3 Deeps deposit, but chief executive Rob Atkinson has stopped short of committing the company to abandoning that option if traditional owners object to it.

Asked if he would accept their decision if they did oppose any further expansion, he prevaricated.

"I think in todays' Australia that it is very, very important to have traditional owner approval for projects and I think it is the right thing to do, but it's very, very important to have the approval of the traditional owners and that's what we'll be focusing on."

Justin O'Brien, of the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation, says it remains to be seen what traditional owners would think of any proposal to expand the Ranger mine, but says their wishes should not be ignored.

"That's what government did in 1978. If the corporate social responsibility dialogue, if the human rights instruments that apply to Australia are to mean anything, then you don't go doing that in 2014/2015. Rio Tinto, and to the extent that it's part of that company, ERA, has a corporate and social responsibility here to ensure that no mining occurs on the Ranger project area without the consent of the Mirarr people. I thought that would be a given for them."

ERA's Rob Atkinson says his company is focused on putting forward proposals that take into account traditional owner concerns of the past, such as water treatment, the mine's cultural and environmental impacts and rehabilitation.

The Australian Conservation Foundation's Dave Sweeney says the Ranger mine has not been run well and has numerous environmental issues associated with it.

He says the renegotiated agreement between the traditional owners and ERA means the company will have to face up to that environmental legacy when the lease runs out in 2021.

"It does provide some increased post-mining certainty and post mining economic sense for that region. It's not like a ticket that enables ERA to just cut and run. It's an agreement that addresses historic deficiencies that provides the basis for both the Mirarr traditional owners, who have lived there and will continue to live there, and the mining company, which has been imposed there and is running out there, of time, to build a basis that has a measured and a costed and comprehensive exit from this most contaminating and imposed of industries."

Dave Sweeney says the region surrounding the Ranger mine has a bright cultural and economic future for traditional owners beyond uranium mining.

"There's a whole range of activities, cultural activities, art activities. There's a whole range of land management activities. There's also a range of post-mining activities. There'll be a lot of work needed to attempt to redress and clean-up and minimise the impacts of decades of uranium mining in Kakadu so there'll be a lot of rehab, revegetation monitoring and environmental work required there. There's a whole range of ranger and national park and tourism opportunities."

Traditional owners have opposed moves by companies to exploit uranium deposits at nearby Koongarra and Jabiluka.

The 1200 hectare Koongarra site has been added to the UNESCO World Heritage list.

Its mining lease is owned by AREVA, which must have traditional owner approval before an exploration licence can be granted.

When the Kakadu National Park was declared in 1979, Koongarra was excluded from it because of its uranium resources, but senior traditional owner Jeffrey Lee has rejected the potential of millions of dollars in mining royalties and wants the land included in the park.

The Jabiluka mineral lease is owned by ERA, and its parent company Rio Tinto has agreed not to mine the site without consent from the Mirarr traditional owners.