Media release – Bob Brown Foundation, 30 August 2021
Venture Minerals’ mine shut down, 19 people in court
Conservationists have this morning returned to protest at the Riley Creek mine in Tasmania’s takayna.
Tasmania Police have arrived on site at a protest in Tasmania’s north-west where Bob Brown Foundation is demonstrating against the mining of takayna / Tarkine.
“Tasmania’s takayna is under a new assault by the mining industry and it’s going to get worse if not halted. Environmental science student Laura Vermeersch is joined by ten citizens while closing down the entrance to the mine with a non-violent direct action this morning at Riley Creek mine,” Bob Brown Foundation’s Campaign Manager Jenny Weber said.
“One of the last wild places on Earth, takayna is home to endangered species, but mining is destroying the place while governments fail to protect the globally significant values,” Jenny Weber said.
“Venture Minerals is scraping the Earth back for iron ore to export to China. All the material being trucked out of this mine to export to China is for a monster mine in Australia’s largest temperate rainforests at Mt Lindsay. A mine at Mt Lindsay, inside a reserve, would annihilate a mountain of rainforest and the Huon pine-clad lower Wilson River,” Jenny Weber said.
“There is still time to prevent destruction of takayna by mining. Tasmania’s takayna is a World Heritage Area in waiting and when protected will provide an essential role and make a direct positive impact in the climate emergency,” Jenny Weber said.
Also this morning in Hobart’s Magistrates Court, nineteen takayna defenders will attend court on charges related to protests against the Chinese state-owned miner MMG proposal to build a heavy metals mining waste dump in takayna just 8km east of where the Riley Creek mine is.
