EPA recommends against a mine on a significant Banded Iron Formation

Release date: 
November 10, 2014

The Environmental Protection Authority has determined a proposal to mine one of the most important Banded Iron Formation (BIF) landforms in the Midwest as environmentally unacceptable.

EPA Chairman Dr Paul Vogel said Sinosteel Midwest Corporation Limited’s “Blue Hills Mungada East Expansion” project to develop a new mine pit on the Mungada Ridge in the Blue Hills area should not be implemented because it would cause irreversible environmental consequences.

The proposal, about 66 km north-east of Perenjori, also includes a waste rock dump, processing plant and roads and aims to provide an additional 4.4 million tonnes of hematite over three years. About 53.5 hectares of native vegetation on and adjacent to the Mungada Ridge would be disturbed.

Dr Vogel said the Blue Hills area comprised of a series of BIF landforms: Mt Karara, central Blue Hills and Mungada Ridge.

“The BIF ranges are isolated ancient ranges, set in a predominantly flat landscape, that provide specialised habitats for plants, animals and ecological communities,” Dr Vogel said.

“Mungada Ridge is the most significant with high biodiversity values and is the last large and substantially intact landform in the Blue Hills area. Any further mining will result in serious and irreversible impacts to the integrity of this landform and the environmental values it supports.”

Dr Vogel said the EPA set a level of assessment as ‘Assessment on Proponent Information, category-B’, which means the EPA has made a decision that the proposal is environmentally unacceptable, based on the proponent’s referral information, specialist advice sought by the EPA and the EPA’s own knowledge and experience.

“In this case, the proposal failed to meet the EPA’s objective for Landforms, in that there should be no loss to the integrity or wholeness of the Mungada Ridge landform being impacted. On the contrary, this proposal would result in serious and irreversible impacts to the integrity of this landform,” Dr Vogel said.

Dr Vogel said the proposal could not be reasonably modified or mitigated to reduce the impacts on the Mungada Ridge.

“This proposal does not meet and cannot be managed to meet the EPA’s objective for Landforms. Therefore the EPA has recommended to the Minister for Environment that this proposal is environmentally unacceptable and should not be implemented,” Dr Vogel said.

“Protection of the Mungada Ridge from any further development is required in order to meet the EPA’s objective to maintain variety and integrity of significant landforms in an important BIF area.”

The EPA’s report to the Minister for Environment is now open for a two-week public appeal period, closing November 24, 2014. Appeals can be made at www.appealsconvenor.wa.gov.au The Minister for Environment will make the final decision.

The EPA’s decision on the level of assessment can be found here

EPA Report 1532 is available at www.epa.wa.gov.au

The EPA continues to support the establishment of a class “A” reserve on Mungada Ridge in recognition of its high environmental and landscape values and the cumulative impacts of development on the surrounding BIF ranges.

Media Contact: Nadia Miraudo 0400 866 450

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