South Australian mining plan would potentially kill off species

Cameron England, Chief Business Reporter From:
The Advertiser
March 15, 2010 8:23PM

A STATE Government plan which would allow mining in sensitive parts of the Northern Flinders Ranges is "greatly flawed" and should be "rejected totally", the SA Museum says.

The plan has also been criticised as being biased in favour of the mining sector, and likely to lead to species extinction.

Six PhD-level scientists and two museum collection managers have contributed to a public submission on the Seeking a Balance proposal, which could allow Marathon Resources to mine uranium inside the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary.

Marathon is the same company which had its exploration rights in the area suspended in early 2008 when it was found to have dumped uranium drilling waste illegally.

The Seeking a Balance plan, which has also angered the mining industry, would strip the area of its current Class A environmental zoning, under which mining is only allowed when there is an over-riding national or state interest.

The new proposal sets up four zones where various levels of mining activities can be carried out, which could lead to mining in sensitive areas via underground means.

But the museum's public submission on the plan is brutal in its criticism.

"Unfortunately, we do not think that Seeking a Balance has met its aim and will achieve a balance at all," the museum states.

"It is disappointing that this new management plan . . . which purports to identify and support the iconic sites of the Northern Flinders Ranges, actually offers less protection for the heritage of this significant area and we firmly believe that the current zonations do not truly reflect the biological and geological diversity of the region."

The museum says the biodiversity evaluation in Seeking a Balance is "greatly flawed".

Maps used in the proposal imply that the vast majority of the area has low biodiversity value, when the case was actually that the area had not been analysed properly.

In contrast, small amounts of information about mineral prospectivity are used to "extrapolate prospectivity across whole geological mapping units".

Environment and Conservation Minister Jay Weatherill said more than 450 submissions were received.

Read more:
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/south-australian-mining-plan-would-potentially-kill-off-species/story-e6frede3-1225841099113