Lake Eyre protections reconsidered for critical minerals projects

Proposed blanket environmental protections across the Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre Basin are being watered down to allow for future development of critical minerals.

Gas wells on the Cooper Creek flood plains. Picture: Doug Gimesy

Proposed blanket environmental protections across the Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre Basin are being watered down to allow for future development of one of Australia’s richest critical minerals deposits.

After promising ahead of the 2015 election to increase protections for the basin from large-scale industrial operations, the Palaszczuk government has been working to set the terms for how resources companies can operate in Queensland’s section of the ecologically and culturally significant catchment.

A Regulatory Impact Statement, completed in mid-2022 after an exhaustive consultation process between miners, farmers, conservationists, rural communities and traditional owners, was supposed to be released publicly in September, outlining options for the government to take to fulfil its promise and the impacts it would have on various industries.

But sources close to the process say Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is considering amending the report to remove the resource-rich North West Minerals Province from the protected area.

The Premier’s intervention followed lobbying by the resources industry, including by former Labor Capricornia MP Kirsten Livermore on behalf of mining giant Anglo American.

The RIS was supposed to go to cabinet on September 12, but before cabinet could approve its public release, the Premier’s office intervened to have it removed from the meeting agenda.

It has since been deferred on every subsequent cabinet agenda.

A source close to the discussions said Anglo and other miners were concerned the original RIS would prevent or limit future exploration and mining in parts of the North West Minerals Province, which lies at the top of the Lake Eyre catchment. The Province, based around Mt Isa, has been touted as a boom hub for the mining of critical minerals needed globally for solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and electronics.

The region was identified in the government’s Queensland Resource Industry Development Plan and has among the world’s richest deposits of copper, vanadium, bauxite, cobalt, graphite, tungsten, zinc and nickel.

Queensland Channel Country. Picture: David Brook

Critical minerals also form the backbone of the Albanese government’s plan to transition to renewable energy.

Three existing mines lie within the basin footprint. None are owned by Anglo, but a spokesperson said it was a “significant mineral tenure holder in central and northwest Queensland, with an exploration project under way targeting critical energy transition materials such as copper”.

The original RIS, seen by The Australian, included a section titled “Impact on the North West Minerals Province and new economy minerals mining”. Two options involve increasing the protected area to include river and flood plain areas, and special ecological features, which would extend the area off-limits to open-cut mining.

The RIS acknowledged the impact, saying: “However, the impacts of this are expected to be negligible in practice, given it is understood that the new economy minerals in the Queensland LEB occur deep underground (>500 metres), deeper than the minerals in the Mount Isa and Cloncurry regions, and will likely involve underground mines”.

But sources told The Australian Ms Palaszczuk is intent on rewording the RIS. One option is removing the NWMP from the protected area. “To say that carving out the NWMP would be a disastrous outcome hardly needs stating,” an insider said. “If the NWMP is carved out and open-cut mining is permitted on rivers and flood plains, it makes the … exercise futile because the Lake Eyre Basin is a terminal system so impacts in the northern catchments would have an impact downstream … as if there were pollution occurring down south.”

Gas wells and infrastructure at Tirrawarra Swamp in Lake Eyre Basin. Picture: Doug Gimesy

Sources close to the process said members of the Stakeholder Advisory Group, formed to develop the RIS, were furious at being sidelined from the final formation of the RIS.

Conservationists and graziers, who last year told The Australian they feared last-minute changes were being made to the options considered in the RIS without their knowledge, have called for no new “conventional” gas operations, a ban on “unconventional” methods like fracking, and tighter regulatory protection of the basin. They’re concerned about the impact mining and gas developments will have on the flow of water through the catchments in Queensland and South Australia.

A government spokesman said the longer term sustainable management of the Queensland section of the Lake Eyre Basin remained a commitment of the Palaszczuk government.

“The consultation RIS is an extensive body of work,” the spokesman said.

“A Stakeholder Advisory Group the Palaszczuk government established has helped inform the ongoing work.”