Blacks oppose CRA mine pipeline
By Bill Mason
BRISBANE - Aborigines at the Doomadgee community in north-west Queensland
have confronted mining giant CRA over plans to build a zinc slurry pipeline
to the sea near their land.
On October 20, around 60 members of four tribes at Doomadgee blocked the
road to prevent a five-member CRA negotiating team entering the community to
discuss the social impact of the company's mining plan.
``A situation similar to Bougainville [in which the island people have
forced closure of CRA's copper mine and launched a struggle for
independence] would not be out of the question, because we are not going to
back down on this issue'', spokesperson for the Gunggalida tribe,
Wadjularbinna, said.
``It could come to that because somewhere down the track something has got
to give. We are not going to sell our souls for monetary gain - desperate
people do desperate things'', she warned.
CRA plans to pump zinc slurry from the Century project, about 90 km from
Doomadgee, through a 25 cm diameter underground pipeline to a barge loading
facility at Burketown, Karumba or Point Parker in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Wadjularbinna said the risk of spills from the pipeline was ``a massive
concern'' and would endanger delicate fishing grounds in the gulf used by
Aboriginal people.