THE Amateur Fishermen’s Association of the Northern Territory has supported government action to preevnt toxic run-off from mining.
AFANT says it welcomes the NT government’s proposed measures for funding action to address legacy mines.
“The mining industry has to take responsibility and pay their way for past environmental mistakes,” AFANT president Warren de With said last week.
“The Northern Territory community has been left with too many serious legacy mine sites that are pumping toxic waste into our waterways.”
“The NT Government has a major environmental and financial challenge to fund and conduct the rehabilitation and clean-up of a number of legacy mine sites. These environmental disasters have been created through past practices with insufficient procedures and almost non-existent rehabilitation bonds.”
“Unfortunately some of the worst examples of legacy mines in the Northern Territory are relatively recent projects. It’s time the mining industry acknowledged that as an industry they have to take some of the responsibility and ownership to ensure that the past mining disasters are properly fixed and rehabilitated to ensure that the industry continues to have a social licence to operate.”
“The billion dollar cost of fixing up the environmental damage of legacy mines like Red Bank, Rum Jungle and Mt Todd should not be the responsibility of the taxpayer,”
Mr de With said.
