Canberra: A northern Australian site previously designated for uranium mining will be included in a national park to protect its Indigenous cultural heritage, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced.
He revealed a plan on Saturday to protect the Jabiluka site in the Northern Territory (NT) by including it in the World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park, ending decades of uncertainty over its future, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Jabiluka area is the site of one of the largest uranium deposits in the world but has never been developed or mined.
Energy Resources Australia (ERA), which is majority-owned by Rio Tinto, was awarded the mining lease for the site in 1991 despite the objections of the Indigenous traditional owners of the land, the Mirrar people.
Albanese said on Saturday that ERA’s application for a 10-year renewal of the lease on the site has been rejected. The lease will expire on August 11, allowing Jabiluka to be incorporated into the national park by which it is surrounded, he said.
“This means there will never be mining at Jabiluka,” he said.
“The Mirrar people have loved and cared for their land for more than 60,000 years. Our government will work with them to keep it safe for all time.”
The site is home to some of the oldest rock art in the world, and in 2017 archaeologists from the University of Queensland discovered over 10,000 artefacts in the area dating back up to 80,000 years that extended the known length of time Aboriginal people have inhabited the continent.
–IANS
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