Mining Environmental Issues

Whitehaven Coal's Winchester South coal mine in central Queensland's Bowen Basin plans to extract up to 17 million tonnes of coal a year for about 30 years.

The High Court rules in favour of native title holders in the Northern Territory preventing mining giant Glencore from expanding a critical part of its large zinc and lead mine on the Gulf of Carpentaria.

The closure of the Russell Vale mine in Wollongong prompts calls for miners to be given better re-employment options.

The NSW resources regulator placed a prohibition order on the mine after a series of underground fires.

Tasmanian authorities unable to contain a toxic chemical leak at a waste management facility in Spreyton will instead truck the chemical drums back to the mine site they came from and bury them.

The Cook administration is weighing up nickel and lithium miners' bid to pay less for extracting the metals.

The sudden evaporation of hype and hot air in the energy transition industry may leave many who plunged into critical minerals in a critical condition, writes business editor Ian Verrender.

The company produces ammonium nitrate emulsion at the Bogan Gate Explosives Reserve, and has been contacted by the regulator multiple times.

Santos can now resume laying the pipeline for its Barossa project. But an energy analyst says the project, and others like it, could face further legal challenges without regulatory reform. 

A NSW magistrate says climate protesters who stopped coal ships during a blockade of the Port of Newcastle in 2023 acted out of "genuine" concern for the environment.

Newmont's Telfer gold mine is forced to suspend processing after "cracking and seeping" is detected at a tailings dam, about 200 kilometres east of Marble Bar.

The first export shipment of mineral sands from the Thunderbird Project arrives in China as a traditional owner calls for further land clearing suspensions at the mine after the discovery of a direction stone.

The reshuffled Northern Territory government has refused to investigate health concerns about the remote manganese mine at the centre of former chief minister Natasha Fyles's resignation in December.

PNG's Porgera gold mine could potentially transform the fortunes of an impoverished province now that it has reopened. But some locals say they've experienced considerable environmental damage from the mine's waste and tailings.

A mining company has been accused of misleading the community to garner support for a mine proposal being assessed by the Victorian government.

The Northern Territory government is being referred to the anti-corruption watchdog over claims of conflicts of interest relating to regulation of Glencore's McArthur River Mine mine and new laws impacting it.

A pristine island in Indonesia is under threat from Indonesia's nickel rush, with some women now having to walk for kilometres just to access clean water. But locals are fighting back.

WA's environmental watchdog will look at Alcoa's bauxite operations, south of Perth, amid concerns about the impact of its mining on drinking water, jarrah forests and animals that live in the area.

The owners are in Sydney to campaign for the pulling of funding for an expansion of a Santos project, which has been subject to court action.

NSW government and opposition MPs have been accused of "covering up" the potential health impacts of heavy metal mines, and the ineffectiveness of regulatory agencies, in a parliamentary inquiry report. 

Premier Roger Cook says the environmental approvals process in WA is "broken", but will his government's legislation to overhaul it create a free-for-all for resources companies? 

You might have heard that mining metals needed for the renewable energy transition could harm the environment, so what's actually happening?

Plans for a large rare earths mining project is meeting resistance from south-east farmers, who worry some of South Australia's best farmland will be lost.

It’s been on a journey around Australia, from Canberra to the Kimberley. Now, six decades since its creation, one of the four famed bark petitions has finally been returned to Arnhem Land. 

Environmentalists say whales could go deaf during seismic surveys for offshore oil and gas. The reality is more complicated.