Major Australian uranium deposit to be incorporated into national park: PM Albanese

(MENAFN- IANS) Canberra, July 27 (IANS) An area in northern Australia previously designated for uranium mining will be incorporated into a national park to protect indigenous cultural heritage, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced.

On Saturday, he announced a plan to protect the Jabiluka site in the Northern Territory (NT) by including it in the Kakadu National Park, a World Heritage site, ending decades of uncertainty over its future, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Jabiluka area contains one of the largest uranium deposits in the world, but it has never been developed or mined.

Energy Resources Australia (ERA), which is majority owned by Rio Tinto, was granted the mining licence for the site in 1991, despite objections from the land’s traditional owners, the Mirrar people.

Albanese said Saturday that ERA’s request for a 10-year extension of its lease on the site has been denied. The lease expires Aug. 11, allowing Jabiluka to be incorporated into the national park that surrounds it, he said.

“This means that there will never be any mining in Jabiluka,” he said.

“The Mirrar people have loved and cared for their land for over 60,000 years. Our government will work with them to keep it safe forever.”

This site is home to some of the oldest rock art in the world. In 2017, archaeologists from the University of Queensland discovered more than 10,000 artefacts dating back 80,000 years. These artefacts are much older than the known period in which Aboriginal people inhabited the continent.

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