A mining company has been fined for breaching an environmental regulation weeks before receiving more than $800 million in government loans and grants.
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Arafura Rare Earths was in February fined $16,500 for contravening the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Act a year earlier, when the miner started preliminary work at the Nolans Project near Alice Springs prior to meeting its pre-commencement requirements.
Condition eight required Arafura to have appropriate environmental management plans in place and signed off by the minister before starting the project, a spokesperson for the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water said.
The management plans required for the rare earths project are for groundwater use, waste storage, impacts on local plants and animals and radiation protection.
The department would not confirm which plans were not approved when work started at the Nolans Project, but a statement from Arafura described the infringement as "procedural".
"There was no environmental impact as a result of the contravention," a company spokesperson told AAP.
"Arafura staff and (department) officials worked closely to resolve misunderstandings in the lead-up to the issuance of the fine."
Arafura paid the fine to the department on March 1.
Resources Minister Madeleine King and Trade Minister Don Farrell travelled to the Northern Territory two weeks later to announce an $840 million taxpayer-funded loan to the company.
Located 120km north of Alice Springs, the Gina Rinehart-backed Nolans project will produce the rare earths neodymium and praseodymium, or NdPr, which are used in electric vehicles, wind turbines and other green technology.
"(This) will be the biggest rare earths mine in this country ... and probably the world," Ms King told reporters in Darwin on Thursday.
"We know the road to net-zero goes through Australia's rare earths and critical minerals and resources."
Arafura CEO Darryl Cuzzubbo said the rare earths were in international high demand.
"Gaining this level of support from the commonwealth government is a critical milestone in becoming a globally significant producer of NdPr," Mr Cuzzubbo said at the announcement.
The fine for the breach was "measly" according to Australian Conservation Foundation, whose national biodiversity policy adviser Brendan Sydes called on the government to overhaul national environmental laws.
"Fines like this risk being seen as merely the cost of doing business for big miners - if they're caught at all," he said.
The Environment Centre NT's Kirsty Howey said regulatory failure in the NT is the "norm" due to "cowboy regulation".
"It is deeply troubling that public funds have been committed by the federal government to a project which appears to have breached its own environmental laws," she said.
"The public deserves to know what due diligence was done before committing such huge sums of money to a project that hasn't complied with federal environmental law."
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek also visited the NT for the funding announcement and was questioned on the rigour of Arafura's environmental approvals.
"They'll have to put in an environmental impact statement in the same way as any other project," she said.
"There's no project that gets to skip the proper environmental processes."
The department said the Arafura matter has now been resolved.
Australian Associated Press
