Public to pay for ‘lax’ public servants

THE Territory government department which was supposed to keep tabs on the pollution caused by mining companies failed to do its job properly and has left the taxpayer exposed to a multi-million clean-up bill.

In the Supreme Court last week, Justice Stephen Southwood rubbished the former Department of Mines and Energy’s handling of a scheme meant to ensure mine operators kept enough money in a security fund to pay for mines to be cleaned up if the company went bust.

Justice Southwood found bureaucratic inaction allowed the “substandard” management of the Frances Creek Mine north of Pine Creek “to persist for far too long”.

The company that operated the now-mothballed mine, Territory Iron, in 2008 put aside $2.6 million to cover the clean-up of the mine, a figure JUSTICE STEPHEN SOUTHWOOD which grew to $5.4 million by 2013.

In mid-2015, bureaucrats demanded the company have more than $28 million to cover a potential clean-up of the mine, by then on its last legs.

A departmental review whittled the figure back to $18 million, but Justice Southwood found bureaucrats had no power to make the mining company set money aside to cover the environmental clean-up for mining already done, only for mining which was “to be carried out”.

“The Department’s poor administration of the (Mining Management) Act permitted … remediation and rehabilitation costs to vastly exceed the initial security required …” Justice Southwood said.

“As a result of the manner in which the Department administered the Act it has assumed the risk that the Northern Territory may incur the costs of rehabilitating the Frances Creek Mine.”

Justice Southwood said it was that kind of lax administration which resulted in the estimated billion-dollar bill faced by the Territory to clean up legacy mine sites.

Environmental problems at the Frances Creek Mine include acid water seeping into Jasmine Creek, a waste rock dump larger than was authorised and a mine pit which has been backfilled with material which could cause more acid seepage.

The mine site is now owned by Perth-based Gold Valley Holdings.