Indigenous Groups, Mined Land Rehabilitation and Mine Closure: Exploring the Australian Terrain

摘要

This paper provides a brief overview of the research project Indigenous groups, rehabilitation andmine closure: exploring the Australian terrain, undertaken in 2019. Dual imperatives drove theproject. They included the need to improve levels of participation of Indigenous landowners inmining operations on their land in ways meaningful to them, and increasing expectations thatcompanies engage local communities in closure planning, criteria setting and relinquishment. Theproject was designed as a 'scoping study' to understand ways Indigenous groups currently workwith mining companies on mine environment management and rehabilitation in Australia, to explorethe level of interest amongst stakeholders in the topic and identify key themes and questions forfurther research.The three authors used a rapid appraisal case-study method engaging with four sites across mainlyremote Australia. These sites include Northern Star's Jundee Mine in the Western Australiangoldfields, Rio Tinto's Amrun operation south of Weipa in far north Queensland and two Newmontoperations; the Tanami Operations in central Australia and Woodcutters base metal mine nearDarwin, Northern Territory. One site was a closed mine, the others operating. The research focusedon the interactions between three main stakeholder groups; mining companies; Indigenous peopleand their representative agencies. The study identified innovative and progressive examples of localIndigenous groups working with mining companies on environmental management andrehabilitation projects. We will discuss the postive outcomes for these different stakeholder groups,and also discuss the factors that influence this engagement - as these include enabling and inhibitingfactors.