The Australian government has stepped in to block a renewed attempt to mine uranium in the Kakadu National Park in the country’s Northern Territory, all but ending a decades-long dispute over one of the world’s largest untapped deposits of high-grade uranium.
Energy Resources of Australia (ERA), a company majority-owned by Rio Tinto, had applied to renew a licence permitting uranium mining at a site called Jabiluka, triggering opposition from the local Mirarr indigenous community.
Mirarr members opposed any prospect of mining there since an original development plan was stopped in the 1990s after public protests.
ERA had applied for a 10-year lease renewal on the mine, but on 26 July the Northern Territories’ mining minister, Mark Monaghan, said a decision had been taken not to renew the lease based partially on advice from the federal government in Canberra.