Vista Gold Australia convicted, fined $162,000 for repeatedly drilling into Yinberrie Hills sacred site at Mount Todd mine
A mining company who repeatedly drilled and ‘desecrated’ a sacred site on the edge of Nitmiluk National Park has been fined $162,000.
Police & Courts
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A mining company’s ‘mercenary’ approach to take advantage of the gold price boom led to the “desecration” of a sacred site on the edge of a Territory National Park, a court has heard.
On Wednesday Vista Gold Australia was convicted and fined $160,000 with a $2000 victims levy after it repeatedly drilled into a sacred site at its Mount Todd mine, on the edge of Nitmiluk National Park.
The Canadian-owned gold mining exploration company pleaded guilty to carrying out illegal works and damaging a sacred site in the Yinberrie Hills site on Barnjarn and Jawoyn Country, some time after March 2020.
It took three years for the illegal works to be discovered, with AAPA tipped off after Vista announced striking gold at the long inactive mine in a press release to the New York Stock Exchange.
The media release announced drilling into the ‘Batman pit’ — an open-cut mine left by previous operations — with its 26 samples suggesting 1.8 to 3.5 million ounces of gold and other valuable material.
Of the 26 drilling locations, half were in the protected sacred site area.
Darwin Local Court judge Steve Ledek noted that the company’s American chief executive Fred Earnest maintained there was consultation about the intended works with Jawoyn people — however the area had already been clearly marked as a restricted works zone under the company’s Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority certificate.
Mr Ledek said there had been a “tacit admission” by the company that the “desecration” of the sacred site “had everything to do with the price of gold”.
“Looking from the outside in, despite ... (what) was put on behalf of Vista Gold, this is nothing more than a mercenary exercise where they had been looking and looking,” he said.
“It was unfortunately found it was a restricted works area, and they went ahead and did it anyway.”
“Because the reward outweighed the risk.”
The company’s website estimates there are 7.8million ounces of gold still buried in Mount Todd, in what it calls “one of the largest and most advanced undeveloped gold projects in Australia”.
Mr Ledek said as of the start of that week, the price of an ounce of gold was $5169, meaning the Batman deposit meant Vista Gold stood to make between $180m to over $500m.
In comparison the maximum penalty for damaging a sacred site is $350,000.
The $162,000 final fine was the equivalent of 0.03 per cent of Vista’s potential windfall from the illegal works.
Mr Ledek said AAPA had argued that “there must be real pain visited by a company that breaches the Act... so there is a relative sense of proportion in the punishment and the crime”.
“Even on the maximum penalty must look on that being an insignificant proportion of the expected recoverable value,” Mr Ledek said.
“It might be believed... that there was some sort of deliberateness to the fact of exploring where they knew they shouldn’t.”
His comments come as the Parliament considers controversial changes to the Sacred Sites Act, which has not pushed for stronger penalties for breaches.
Mr Ledek said it was accepted that Yinberrie Hills site carried a high cultural importance to the Barnjarn and Jawoyn people, a victim impact statement was not provided to the court.
“The significance of that site belongs to them,” he said.
Mr Ledek said “the overall approach” of the miner was to benefit their shareholder, flagging that due to a $1m share agreement with the Jawoyn Association Aboriginal Corporation and Barnjarn Aboriginal Corporation this included the Traditional Owners themselves.
“The Jawoyn people are shareholders in that development,” he said.
But Mr Ledek highlighted that the mine was not yet active despite its 2021 ‘Major Project status’, with NT Environmental Protection Authority not approving its reopening.
Mr Ledek said Vista Gold had acknowledged the incident was a “black mark” against their reputation in the Territory.
“They’ll have to work very hard to regain the trust of those individuals in those organisations in the Northern Territory as they move forward,” he said.
“By admitting what they had done, and pleading guilty, that goes a long way towards that reparation.”
Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority chair Bobby Nunggumajbarr said he welcomed the conviction and resolution of the Mount Todd case.
“While Vista Gold may have met with members of these groups, the Authority ensures custodians are consulted properly and widely about the impacts of proposed work,” Mr Nunggumajbarr said.
“Vista Gold had the maps and the Authority Certificate for development near the sacred site, and it is very important all Restricted Work Areas are understood and respected.”
“Protecting sacred sites is important for custodians and for the whole of the Northern Territory.”
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