Strategies to pipeline 3,300 ML a year from the NT’s Roper River turned down

A mining business’s application to pump 3,300 megalitres a year from the Roper River has actually been turned down in-part by the Northern Territory’s water controller.

Australian Ilmenite Resources has actually been enabled to draw out 1,649 ML a year from the Roper River because 2012 and was looking for to double the size of its licence to permit growth strategies.

The NT’s water controller, Jo Townsend, has actually extended the business’s initial licence for another 4 years, however has actually declined its application for an additional 1,651 ML a year.

” What I’ve chosen to do is approve half the water that it obtained in line with their existing usage … however the staying water they’re looking for will not be thought about till it’s been described the NT Environment Protection Authority,” she stated.

” The big growth of the mine would see a various level of water usage and requires to be thought about under the Environment Protection Act and the business has actually accepted make a recommendation to do that.”

In the lead as much as the water controller’s choice, there was strong neighborhood issues about the size of the proposed licence and the effect it might have on the environment and the downstream neighborhood of Ngukurr.

Ngukurr resident Winston Thompson stated he invited the choice, however still had issues about the initial licence.

” I’m for declining more water licences. It’s excellent news,” he stated.

” If they’re going to have the licence for another 4 years approximately, we’ve got to make certain the federal government or whoever included is keeping track of the water circulation from upstream, [because] we’ve got great deals of folks utilizing it.”

Ms Townsend stated the initial 1,649 ML water allowance underwent conditions and might be lowered to guarantee minimum circulation rates in the Roper River.

Prior to substantial modifications to the NT’s Water Act in 2018, a mining business would not have actually needed approval from the NT’s water controller at all.

Expansion depends on water

The ilmenite mine, about 100 kilometres east of Mataranka, has this year exported 17,732 tonnes of ilmenite to consumers in China and Japan through the Darwin Port.

In its application, Australian Ilmenite Resources stated it needed 3,300 ML a year to increase its production at the mine from 50,000 tonnes a year, to in between 100,000 and 120,000 tonnes a year.

” The mine is presently performing at a water usage rate of 4.3 ML a day to provide a performance rate of around 150 tonnes daily,” it stated.

” The mine requires about 4,500 tonnes each month to cover fundamental operating expense and about double that rate to supply a buffer from market variations and to recuperate initial capital expense.”

The business stated in 2018 it got approval to build a 9,000 ML dam, referred to as Highway Dam, which would offer the task “with some self-reliance from the river especially in drier months”.

But it stated building and construction of the dam would not start up until production went beyond 100,000 tonnes annually, which might not be attained unless the business got its complete 3,300 ML surface area water licence.

The business has actually been called for additional remark.