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The Tarkine is Australia’s largest temperate rainforest
Australia has granted another iron ore mine deal in Tasmania’s Tarkine region, this time to Grange Resources Limited (ASX:GRR) to expand the tailings dam at its Savage River mine.
The company’s managing director, Wayne Bould, told ABC News the dam —capable of storing millions of cubic metres of rock waste— has satisfied environmental protection criteria, despite environmentalists claiming that mining in the region would imperil the survival of the only robust Tasmanian devil population still left in the wild.
The decision comes only a few days after Nick Mooney, a prominent wildlife biologist said the presence of extractive companies in the Tarkine will have minimal impacts on the endangered animal.
Mooney did extensive research for Venture Minerals (ASX:VMS) and Shree Minerals (ASX:SHH) at their proposed mines at Riley Creek, near Tullah, and Nelson River, near Temma, reported The Daily Telegraph:
He found the sites were almost devoid of devils and recorded only sporadic evidence of the carnivorous marsupial that faces extinction in the wild because of the spread of a deadly infectious cancer.
With today’s federal approval Savage River will be able to continue operating until 2030.
The Tarkine, which contains the world’s second-largest temperate rainforest, is a bitterly contested landscape where 10 mines are scheduled to open over the next four years.
Image source Wikimedia Commons.
