Article by Karma Barndon, courtesy of Australia’s Mining Monthly.
With long-awaited of Part V approval for its McPhee iron ore project granted, Hancock Prospecting chairwoman Gina Rinehart has urged the federal government to be more welcoming of investment and projects and to stop attacking the “mining golden geese” with added red tape.
The Part V approval is under Western Australia’s Environmental Protection Act 1986, as part of pollution and emissions controls.
The project first applied for Part V approval in early 2021.
Hancock Prospecting chief executive officer projects Sanjiv Manchanda said McPhee was referred for a long approval process in early 2021 and had experienced a multitude of challenges, from changes to heritage legislation and changes to federal environment guidelines.
“The McPhee project has a very small footprint and will use existing processing, rail and port infrastructure, yet it has taken years to get here,” he said.
“Our staff, Mrs Rinehart and I, are very pleased that after long and sustained dialogues at all levels we have achieved this important milestone.”
Rinehart said it had taken years of efforts and persistence to bring McPhee to reality.
“Iron ore is an essential mineral … but mines aren’t like wool that grows each year, they must be studied, invested in and developed if we want to be able to maintain living standards,” she said.
“We’ve been very fortunate in WA that mining in the Pilbara region has given us high living standards and stopped us from being a mendicant state.”
Rinehart said according to the Minerals Council of Australia, about 80% of mining projects in the pipeline would never see the light of day.
“This is serious, and if the government keeps bringing in policies and red tape and keeps attacking the mining golden geese, then there are other countries with iron ore and other minerals and investment will continue to move offshore,” she said.
“In my view, it’s important that we make investment and projects more welcome and continue receiving the benefits of the mining industry and those businesses that they support.”
Project details
The McPhee project is about 100km north of the Roy Hill mine.
Under McPhee’s mine plan, primary crushed ore will be hauled by road train to Roy Hill for processing.
A mobile crushing and screening plant will also be brought in to crush and screen rock material for road base.
Material extracted from borrow pits will be fed into the mobile plant then put through the primary crusher for crushing to the required size, before going through a secondary crusher for further crushing.
While the works approval has been granted, Hancock must still comply with WA’s Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 in a separate regulatory process, due to the presence of two registered and nine lodged heritage sites at McPhee.
The company was given conditional consent by WA Aboriginal Affairs minister Tony Buti in April to impact two sites, while a third must be avoided with a 100m buffer.
Hancock is negotiating with the Nyamal and Palyku peoples on a Cultural Heritage Management Plan.
