PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Western Australian Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has recommended that Sinosteel Midwest Corporation’s proposed development of a new mine pit on the Mungada Ridge, in the Blue Hills, should not be approved.

EPA chairperson Dr Paul Vogel said this week that the proposed Blue Hills Mungada east expansion project would cause irreversible environmental consequences.

Sinosteel is pursuing the further expansion of its existing operations at the Blue Hills direct shipping ore (DSO) project, which would include the construction and operation of one new mine pit at Mungada East, a waste rock dump, a processing plant and haul roads and associated access roads.

The expansion project, which would provide an additional 4.4-million tonnes of hematite over three years, would disturb about 53.5 ha of native vegetation on, and adjacent to, the Mungada Ridge.

Vogel said the Blue Hills area comprised a series of banded iron formation (BIF) landforms, including Mt Karara, central Blue Hills and Mungada Ridge.

“The BIF ranges are isolated ancient ranges, set in a predominantly flat landscape, that provide specialised habitats for plants, animals and ecological communities,” Vogel said.

“Mungada Ridge is the most significant with high biodiversity values and is the last large and substantially intact landform in the Blue Hills area. Any further mining will result in serious and irreversible impacts to the integrity of this landform and the environmental values it supports.”

Vogel said the EPA made a decision that the proposal was environmentally unacceptable, based on the proponent’s referral information, specialist advice sought by the EPA and the EPA’s own knowledge and experience.

“In this case, the proposal failed to meet the EPA’s objective for landforms, in that there should be no loss to the integrity or wholeness of the Mungada Ridge landform being impacted. On the contrary, this proposal would result in serious and irreversible impacts to the integrity of this landform.”

He added that the proposal could not be reasonably modified or mitigated to reduce the impacts on the Mungada Ridge.

“This proposal does not meet and cannot be managed to meet the EPA’s objective for landforms. Therefore, the EPA has recommended to the Minister for Environment that this proposal is environmentally unacceptable and should not be implemented,” Vogel said.

The EPA’s report to the Minister for Environment was open for a two-week public appeal period, closing November 24.