A plan to expand the world’s 10th biggest zinc mine in Queensland is in jeopardy amid a dispute over whether the local Indigenous community genuinely supports the disturbance of a culturally significant site.

The native title corporation with the legal right to represent the Waanyi people has signalled support for New Century Resources’ plan to extract the Century mine’s South Block at the expense of a sacred mens’ site known traditionally as Windida and more recently as Magazine Hill.