{"id":1200461,"date":"2020-08-07T05:52:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-07T10:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1032020"},"modified":"2020-08-07T05:52:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T10:52:00","slug":"fortescue-rethinking-expansion-that-endangers-australian-sacred-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1200461","title":{"rendered":"Fortescue rethinking expansion that endangers Australian sacred site"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian iron ore major Fortescue Metals Group (ASX: FMG) said on Friday it would re-evaluate an expansion plan at one of its iron ore mines in the Pilbara region, after an Indigenous group said the project threatened sacred sites, including a 60,000 year old rock shelter.<\/p>\n

Fortescue\u2019s decision comes after fellow miner Rio Tinto (ASX, LON, NYSE: RIO), the number one iron ore producer, blew up in May a 46,000-year-old sacred indigenous site<\/a> in Western Australia.<\/p>\n

While the company has apologized for the decision, chief executive officer Jean-Sebastien Jacques revealed on Friday it had other options, but rejected them.<\/p>\n

Rio\u2019s boss acknowledged that the move allowed the company to access about 8 million tons of high-value iron ore. The world\u2019s second largest miner recorded about $4.6 billion in profits from its iron ore unit in the first half of the year.<\/p>\n

In light of the global uproar Rio\u2019s blasting caused, Fortescue has asked the government to delay a decision on a heritage exemption request, which is part of a mine expansion plan. The project would threaten sites of cultural significance to the Wintawari Guruma people.<\/p>\n

CEO Elizabeth Gaines said in a call with analysts<\/a> that the company\u2019s primary objective was to avoid cultural heritage damage.<\/p>\n

Solar ambitions<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The company is also gearing up to test whether it can run its Pilbara-based Christmas Creek iron ore mine on solar, alone, during the day\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alinta Energy, the miner\u2019s partner in the project, says it is confident the goal can be achieved.<\/p>\n

The solar farm is part of a major project that will extend the Alinta transmission line that runs from the Newman gas generator to Roy Hill mine by another 65km to Christmas Creek and Cloudbreak.<\/p>\n

More to come\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Decision comes as an Indigenous group said the project threatened heritage sites, including a 60,000 year old rock shelter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2849,949,369,4,2640],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200461"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1200461"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1200506,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200461\/revisions\/1200506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1200461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1200461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1200461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}