Archived press release

Foe stages rio tinto jabiluka protest

2 April 2001

The Rio Tinto protest will take place at 10.30am outside Rio Tinto's HQ at 6 St James's Square , Mayfair, London SW1 on Monday 2 April 2001. A giant boomerang will be handed over to Rio Tinto CEO Leigh Clifford.

Friends of the Earth today stages a protest outside the headquarters of Rio Tinto, calling on the UK mining giant not to sell the Jabiluka uranium mine in Australia. FOE will deliver to company CEO Leigh Clifford a giant boomerang with the words “Jabiluka, Hand it Back” on it. Friends of the Earth fears that the sale of the mine will lead to its exploitation and irreversible damage to Kakadu National Park, the setting for the Crocodile Dundee films. The mine is located in the heart of Kakadu which is a World Heritage Site.

Friends of the Earth also points to the injustice that such a sale would pose to the Mirrar Aboriginal people, the traditional owners of the land. The Mirrar were forced to sign away the rights to mine Jabiluka in highly controversial circumstances in 1982. The Mirrar have led opposition to the development of Jabiluka, which has resulted in major protests all over Australia and over 500 arrests.

Rio Tinto inherited the Jabiluka PR nightmare following their takeover of the Austrlian mining company North Ltd last year. In a speech to the Australian Securities Institute on 22 March, Leigh Clifford made it clear that Rio Tinto would not support development of the mine “given (public & indigenous)opposition and current market circumstances”. However, he also made it clear that Rio Tinto were looking to quickly offload the Jabiluka operating subsidiary, Energy Resources Australia. Likely buyers include French nuclear utility Cogema.

Ed Matthew, FOE Living World campaigner commented:
“Friends of the Earth welcomes Rio Tinto's decision not to develop Jabiluka as a result of public and Aboriginal opposition but considers it utterly hypocritical and irresponsible of Rio Tinto to thenconsider selling the mine , which will then inevitably lead to its development. It's like realising a painting you have bought is stolen but then proceeding to sell it anyway.”

Friends of the Earth are joining the Mirrar people and an alliance of indigenous and environmental groups calling on Rio Tinto to hand the Jabiluka mine site over to Kakadu National Park.

A Friends of the Earth briefing on Jabiluka is available on request.

If you're a journalist looking for press information please contact the Friends of the Earth media team on 020 7566 1649.

Published by Friends of the Earth Trust