The economic benefits and costs associated with the McArthur River mine must be examined publicly and independently, the Environment Centre NT (ECNT) said today.

ECNT’s Freshwater Campaigner, Dr Gary Scott said: “Many emotive claims have been made recently in the media by mine proponents, as well as in NT Parliament by the CLP Opposition, about the economic impacts on the Territory should the river diversion and open cut mine not be approved.

 “However, those same mine supporters never mention that the existing underground McArthur River operation has not contributed any mineral royalties to the NT Government for the last decade, because payment of mineral royalties in the NT is tied to mine profits.

 “Under both the previous owner, MIM Holdings, and the current owner, Xstrata, large costs were assigned to the McArthur River mine which rendered it unprofitable – principally the cost of transporting the lead/zinc concentrate overseas and even the overseas smelting costs[1]

 “The end result of these complex overseas arrangements is that while the companies which own the mine recorded substantial profits (e.g. Xstrata US$1.7 billion profit last year), the mine itself reported losses and paid no royalties to the NT Government.

This has gone on for years and raises many serious questions. “How many millions of dollars in income has been lost to the Territory over the last decade as a result of the failure of the mine to record a profit? It certainly appears that the economic interests of Territorians may have been made subordinate to the interests of mining corporations. 

“To make matters worse, the mine has been receiving a subsidy from the NT Government guaranteeing the supply of cheap energy to the mine since it opened in the mid-nineties. 

  “ECNT is calling on the NT Government to publicly disclose how much in subsidies the company has received over the past decade courtesy of the Territory taxpayer. We are also calling for an independent assessment of the issue of non-payment of mineral royalties by the mine.