McARHTUR River Mining (MRM) has lodged an appeal against the Supreme Court decision of late April which found the Northern Territory Government approval of the mine’s open pit development as invalid.
Despite retrospective NT legislation authorising the development to proceed, MRM felt it necessary to lodge the appeal rather than allow the original court decision to go unchallenged, according to MRM general manager Brian Hearne.
“This is a matter of precedent and we need to set the record straight,” he said.
“We do not take this matter lightly. It is essential to have absolute clarity on the issue of mining authorisations and mining management plans for the benefit of future action by MRM and the mining industry in the Northern Territory.
“We believe the NT Government acted lawfully when it issued an amendment to our authorisation after a full environmental assessment process.”