Rally disrupts ore shipment
BOB Brown Foundation protesters took their campaign against mining in the Tarkine from the West Coast to the Burnie Port on Friday, disrupting a shipment of iron ore bound for Asia.
Tasmania Police said officers attended two sites of protest activity at the port, with one protester locked on at the Burnie wharf, and three attached to barricades at the Venture Minerals ore storage site.
Police charged four people with trespass. A 32-year-old woman from Molesworth, two women from Tinderbox and a 21-year-old woman from West Hobart were all bailed to appear before the court at a later date.
The 46,000-tonne ultra max bulk carrier vessel was delayed for more than five hours. The company said its contractors were confident of making up the lost time.
“Once again, it is shame that the Bob Brown Foundation won’t accept the umpire’s decision that the extraction of at-surface iron ore at Riley can be undertaken in an environmentally acceptable manner,” a company spokesman said.
“This is a protest against the jobs that we have created.
“Clearly Tasmania’s antitrespass laws aren’t working in their present form, as they are not proving to be a deterrent to this illegal activity.”
Venture Minerals expects to fill two ships with iron ore — which currently fetches $US160 per tonne — each month from this point on.
The Riley mine at Tullah is now operating 24 hours a day, with the EPA recently overturning a permit condition that stopped the company transporting ore at night.
The Bob Brown Foundation staged the intervention at the port as the vessel chartered from an international shipping operator was due to arrive at 5am.
“Tasmania’s takayna/ Tarkine is under increasing threat by new mines and we will continue to stand up for the protection of this remarkable place that can and needs to be securely protected in a World Heritage-listed national park and returned to Aboriginal ownership,” Bob Brown Foundation campaign manager Jenny Weber said from the Burnie Port.
“We are here to peacefully intervene on the relentless ignorance of mining one of the last wild places on Earth while the climate and biodiversity crises grip the world.”