Society
Minerals Council claims don’t add up
Tasmanian Minerals Council CEO Terry Long has made deceptive comment on last night’s Triple J ‘Hack’ program regarding the size of proposed new mining in the Tarkine.
“The two iron ore mines that I expect GetUp! are banging on about, as I said are very small. You’re talking footy oval size, and not that many of them.” Said Mr Long. (http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hack/# Tuesday’s program, time reference 21:42)
“Mr Long’s has deliberately misled the public on the size of proposed mining, despite company documents being on the public record”, said Tarkine National Coalition spokesperson Scott Jordan.
“A football oval is roughly 2 hectares, a little less. The smallest of the Venture Minerals proposals is Riley Creek at 118 hectares, or 59 football ovals. The Stanley River proposal is 362 hectares or 161 football ovals. The largest at Mt Lindsay being a whopping 1104 hectares the equivalent of (including grandstands) 420 Melbourne Cricket Grounds, with a 1.5km open cut pit depth of 220 metres or twice the height of the Sydney Harbour Bridge”.
Mr Long went on to state that 45-46% of the state was in reserves, without disclosing that less than half of those reserves prohibit mining. In the Tarkine, only 5% is protected from mining, while 80% is protected from logging.
Two of Venture Minerals proposed mines are in existing reserves, with another in an area subject to reserve discussions in the Tasmanian Forests Agreement (IGA).
Mr Long also claimed the Tarkine does not exist.
“Claims by the Mineral Council over the size of mines proposed in the Tarkine wilderness don’t add up, they are completely wrong and have demonstrated their lack of knowledge on what is being proposed in the Tarkine. They have also bizarrely claimed that the Tarkine doesn’t exist, try telling that to the tourism businesses across Tasmania that are employing people and generating wealth for the state based on the area,” said GetUp! spokeperson Paul Oosting.
The Tasmanian Minerals Council Conference starts tomorrow.
References to proposed mine sizes taken from the following Venture Minerals documents:
Riley Creek EPBC referral document (page 6) http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/epbc/epbc_ap.pl?name=show_document;document_id=47601;proposal_id=6339
Stanley River (Livingstone) mine lease application 3M/2012 http://www.mrt.tas.gov.au/webdoc2/app/default/lease_detail?id=34664
Mt Lindsay mine lease application 7M/2011 http://www.mrt.tas.gov.au/webdoc2/app/default/lease_detail?id=34164