Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Federal Court of Australia has dismissed a native title challenge to Indian major Adani’s Carmichael coal project, in Queensland.
The Wangan and Jagalingou (W&J) People in 2016 voted 294 to 1 in favour of an indigenous land use agreement for the Carmichael project, with the agreement inked by the Queensland government, the W&J People, and Adani in 2017, which was registered with the National Native Title Tribunal.
Representatives from the W&J People filed an application in 2017 against the state government and Adani, claiming that the native title certifiation was void.
The Federal Court in August dismissed the claims, and the W&J representatives filed an appeal, which has now been dismissed.
“We welcome today’s judgement from the Federal Court that has entirely dismissed the Kemppi appeal and awarded costs in Adani’s favour. This continuing court action has been pursued by a very small minority of the W&J People. The majority of the W&J People support the development of the mine,” a spokesperson for Adani Mining said.
“We will continue to work with the W&J People under the indigenous land use agreement, while respecting the rights, history, future intentions and requests of the Traditional Owners.”
Adani is poised for construction of the Carmichael project after receiving environmental approvals for its last two management plans earlier this year.