Aborigines halt Rio Tinto project

Plans to develop uranium mine are abandoned after protests at Johannesburg summit. Jason Nissé reports

Mining giant Rio Tinto has indicated it is about to abandon plans to develop a giant uranium mine in northern Australia in the teeth of opposition from the local Aboriginal people.

However, the move will not avert a full- scale senate investigation into uranium mining in Australia, which will focus heavily on Rio Tinto's activities.

Rio Tinto had been hoping to develop the Jabiluka mine in Australia's Northern Territories, which is based a couple of miles from its existing Ranger mine, one of the largest uranium-producing facilities in the world. It acquired the projects when it bought a rival miner, North, for £1.1bn two years ago.

The Jabiluka development is in the middle of a national park called Kakadu, which is occupied by an Aboriginal group called the Mirrar people. Rio Tinto bored a 1.2km underground tunnel between Ranger and Jabiluka, despite court action taken out by the Mirrar people to stop it. They have been protesting for more than five years against the development, taking their cause to the Australian senate, top cricket matches and the Johannesburg summit on sustainable development.

At a meeting during the summit, Rio Tinto's chairman, Sir Robert Wilson, said that there would be "no development of that project without the consent of the traditional landowners, the Mirrar people. We won't develop it without their consent, full stop."

In response to Sir Robert's comments, Yvonne Margarula, the senior traditional owner of the Mirrar people, said: "I'm not going to agree to the development of the mine, for whatever reason they want from it, money or whatever else. I'm not going to allow them to destroy any more of my land." Ms Margarula's comments need to be ratified by a land commission, but as she is the effective head of her community, this is being seen as the last word on the matter.

Rio Tinto said it had no plans to develop Jabiluka, not least because of weak uranium prices. But the Mirrar opposition indicates there is no chance of developing the mine at all, and Rio Tinto will come under pressure to end the care and maintenance operation on the site and return it to its natural state.

The protests over Jabiluka have prompted the senate to start an investigation into uranium miningin Australia at the end of this month. One major issue will be pollution from the Ranger mine, which is pumping out about a litre of contaminated water a second.

Rio Tinto, through its majority owned subsidiary Energy Resources of Australia, operates two other uranium mines, Honeymoon and Beverley in South Australia.