By PETER ROWE

A mining company’s plan to create an open cut gold mine in western NSW has come to an end after Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek accepted a Section 10 application from Wiradjuri elders to protect the site for cultural reasons.

Under Section 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act an Indigenous person can make an application to protect an area from a development’s impact.

And that is exactly what has brought the Regis Resources plan to a halt.

Aunty Nyree Reynolds made the application on behalf of a group of Wiradjuri elders, the Wiradyuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation (WTOCWAC).

A previous application from the group also contributed to a protection order being placed over Bathurst’s Mount Panarama Wahlu in 2021.

The application stated that the Belubula headwaters and the Belubula River were of “extreme cultural significance to the Wiradjuri people.”

On August 17 Ms Plibersek agreed as the mine proposal had a waste storage tailings dam that would have been constructed at the river’s headwaters.

That is no longer possible and Regis has now indicated the plan, which involved extracting up to 60 million tonnes of ore to produce gold near Blayney, NSW, will not go ahead.

Regis said in a statement: “It was made clear to the minister that the project would not be viable if the Section 10 declaration was made.”