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Contentious Tas mine decision pushed back

Ethan JamesAAP
MMG's tailings dam project would involve clearing 285 hectares of wilderness, including rainforest.
Camera IconMMG's tailings dam project would involve clearing 285 hectares of wilderness, including rainforest. Credit: AAP

A federal government decision on a controversial mine expansion plan in Tasmania's northwest wilderness has been pushed back by more than a month.

Majority Chinese government-owned company Minerals and Metals Group (MMG) is proposing to build a new tailings dam in the Tarkine rainforest to store waste.

The move has sparked protests spearheaded by the Bob Brown Foundation, including a rally of several hundred people at Hobart City Hall at the weekend.

Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley was due to make a preliminary decision about the proposal by Tuesday.

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However, the Department of Water, Agriculture and the Environment has issued a notice stating the statutory timeframe for the decision is now July 23.

MMG said it has agreed to the extension and will continue to "complete engineering and environmental baselines and assessment to support a new tailings storage site".

"Drilling and geotechnical sampling will take place over the coming weeks," it said in a statement.

"These activities will require ongoing site access, consistent with the conditions of MMG's existing approvals and mining lease."

The tailings dam project would involve piping mining waste some 3.5km to a proposed 140-hectare reservoir and, in the process, clearing as much as 285ha of wilderness, including rainforest.

As part of ongoing protests at the mine in Rosebery, two people from the Bob Brown Foundation chained themselves to machinery on Monday.

Seventeen activists have been arrested in about three weeks, the conservation foundation says.

Spokeswoman Jenny Weber said MMG has constructed a new road to prepare for the geotechnical sampling.

"These intact forests that are immediately threatened are habitat for nationally-listed species vulnerable to extinction including Tasmanian devils, quolls, giant wedge-tailed eagles and Masked owls," she said.

The Bob Brown Foundation recently released survey data it says is proof the plan doesn't have public backing.

Two thirds of respondents in an online survey of 1001 people commissioned by the Australia Institute supported Ms Ley using her power to stop the rainforest clearing and insist MMG use an alternative site.

Tasmanians, whom the project's potential environmental and economic pros and cons directly affects, were not surveyed due to the state's small sample size.

MMG says the 85-year-old zinc, copper and lead mine supports 500 people and the company is committed to finding "the safest and most balanced solution".

"We respect the right to peaceful protest and for people to express their opinions, however, our number one concern is that we maintain the safety of everyone on site - for workers and protesters alike," the company said.

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