Reports of a fresh bid to block Olympic Dam sized mining operation in South Australia

A report recommending that the Commonwealth should override state government approvals for mining in central SA could halt an Olympic Dam-sized mining operation.

A mining company chasing “the next Olympic Dam’’ in outback South Australia has urged Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to overrule a report that recommends a halt to exploration in the area because of concerns of destruction of Aboriginal heritage.

Orpheus Mining chairman Mick Billing said the company had already “jumped through an enormous number of hoops’’ including several court cases over the last 12 years, as well as spending around $20 million on the project at Lake Torrens

“To get a punch in the nose like this one now on this issue is very disappointing,’’ Mr Billing said.

aerial view of Lake Torrens a salt lake in South Australia

Mr Billing said the company needed to drill more holes in the area to determine the potential size of the copper, gold and uranium resource.

“An exhaustive drill test might establish that there’s nothing there of any value, it also might establish there’s something there the same size as Olympic Dam, or bigger, or somewhere in between,’’ he said.

A report compiled under section 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Application Act, which had been lodged in 2021 by two members of the Kokatha Aboriginal Corporation on the entirety of Lake Torrens, recommended a heritage order be declared on specific areas that could halt all future mining exploration.

A spokesperson for Ms Plibersek said there would be no “comment on the regulatory processes that are underway because the minister does not pre-judge any specific matter’’.

Ms Plibersek caused controversy last week when using section 10 to stop a proposed tailings dam for a gold mine in the headwaters of the Beluba River in central-west NSW.

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The exploration drill searching for deposits of iron oxide copper-gold mineralisation in the northern portion of Lake Torrens, as part of Lake Torrens Murdie Exploration Program.

Association of Mining and Exploration Companies chief executive Warren Pearce said these “last-minute opaque processes’’ were damaging mining.

“We understand the Minister inherited section 10s, but surely she has enough evidence to see the risks it poses on the industry and the Australian economy,’’ he said.

However, Kokatha Aboriginal Corporation chief executive David Whitelaw said Lake Torrens was “a long-established site of great significance to the Kokatha, Arabana, Adnyamathana, Kuyani, and Barngarla peoples’’.

“As one of the most significant sites in that part of South Australia, it holds deep meaning for thousands of Aboriginal people in the area,’’ he said.

Premier Peter Malinauskas said he was unaware of the details of the Orpheus application but was a supporter of the mining industry.

“We are very bullish about the future of mining in South Australia, particularly around copper,’’ he said. “

Then Liberal premier Steven Marshall approved the licence allowing exploration company Kelaray, a subsidiary of Argonaut Resources, to drill for ore on the western shores of the lake.

The Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation had ­successfully fought to stop the project in 2022 in South Australian ­Supreme Court but the ruling was overturned on appeal in favour of the company in May 2023.