MARATHON RESOURCES

The Hon. M. PARNELL (15:17): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Mineral Resources Development a question about Marathon Resources.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M. PARNELL: Yesterday minister Holloway and Premier Rann released a press release under the heading 'Government suspends drilling operations'. They followed it up with a ministerial statement reporting on the PIRSA investigation into significant breaches of exploration licence conditions by Marathon Resources in the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary.

Despite the impression given yesterday that this represents harsh punishment by the government, cracking down on a rogue operator, not only has Marathon Resources been allowed to continue drilling as normal in the four weeks since PIRSA and the EPA went to Arkaroola to investigate the buried waste but I understand that PIRSA has given permission for the company to continue on and complete its current drilling operations, which Marathon estimates will take another 10 days beyond yesterday's announcement.

This morning Marathon company chairman, Peter Williams, certainly did not seem too perturbed by the so-called suspension, saying on ABC Radio:

Every year we've been out between April and October and that would have been the case this year. We would have been vacating in March, so it's brought that forward by a few weeks.

As far as the company is concerned, it seems it expects to be given permission to start drilling again in the wilderness sanctuary at the end of this year.

The other revelation that came out yesterday was that this incident was not just some hasty rubbish disposal but a systematic and sustained abuse of licence provisions, including, most disturbingly, vandalism of a unique geological outcrop at Mount Gee—a site which I remind members has been listed as a geological monument on the register for the national estate. I also remind members that the uranium exploration at Mount Gee is not, as stated by the Premier in January, occurring in an area nearby but is smack bang in the middle of the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary. My questions to the minister are:

1. Will he confirm that Marathon has been given permission to complete its current drilling operations, which is likely to involve another 10 days of drilling actively beyond yesterday's suspension announcement?

2. When will the joint EPA/PIRSA investigation be finalised and when will it be released to the public?

3. Does he accept that the area under investigation by PIRSA and the EPA is inside the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary and not, as stated by the Premier, in an area nearby and, if so, why is the government continuing to spread this misinformation?

4. Given that we have some 22,800 bags of waste, some containing radioactive drill cores, disposed of in two pits 35 metres long and 2.7 metres deep in the middle of a wilderness sanctuary, and a mechanical assault on the Mount Gee geological monument itself, what would a mining company have to do to have its operations discontinued permanently?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Police, Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning) (15:20): The fact is that Marathon Resources has been told to halt its operations there forthwith. Of course, it does have to not only clean up the deposits that were put into the pit against the requirements of that company but also clear up the drilling activity. When you drill a hole, of course, you dig a pit with a plastic liner around it to catch the water that is used in the drilling process, and we expect that as part of completing those drilling operations the company has to restore the drill holes. It will take a little while to clear that up and remove those sumps, as they are called, that are part of the drilling activity but, as I made clear yesterday, no new drilling will be permitted by that company.

To put that in perspective, it is interesting that, when Marathon made a statement to the Stock Exchange on 31 January this year, at the time I think the company was talking about a program of 50 drilling holes up to June 2008. My advice is that the company has drilled 23 holes, and it will remain at that number. So, to try to suggest that somehow or other this government is permitting those activities to continue is completely incorrect. However, the drills will be on site for a few days to complete their work on the particular holes on which they are currently active because, obviously, that needs to be cleaned up as part of our requirements. Incidentally, of course, that is why the company will retain a mining licence, because obviously it can do that work only if it has access through a mining licence.

The honourable member also talked about where the activity is. Where Marathon Resources has been drilling is on Mount Gee, which is inside the Arkaroola area. I believe the Premier referred to it as being near the resort. It is about 10 kilometres from the Arkaroola resort, which most people would recognise. As I said, I do not think anyone is disputing that it is within the broad Arkaroola area. That is obviously understood.

The honourable member referred to the alleged damage to a particular geological monument. I referred to that in my statement yesterday as one of those matters on which the government obviously is seeking a response from the company. Of course, there has been some removal and certainly the circumstantial evidence would suggest that has been done by the company. We are still awaiting a response from the company in relation to that particular matter, but how the responsibility for that can be determined of course remains to be seen. Clearly, the fact that there was some damage to that area—in other words, a piece of equipment was used where it should not have been—is obviously one of the factors the government has taken into account in making its decision.

The honourable member in his question also raised issues about the appropriateness of this government's response. Let me say that, as a result of the action that this government has taken, there will be significant financial harm to this company, and I think one only has to look at the Stock Exchange to see the evidence of that. I can only repeat that this government will not tolerate that sort of behaviour. Certainly, as I said, the dumped waste, which is simply the material that has been driven from the cores, is radioactive; because of course the company was exploring for uranium, and the waste does have some uranium present in it, I suspect.

I suspect it is less radioactive than this building, which is made of granite. I am sure that, if we brought a Geiger counter into this building, there would be very significant readings because of the granite that this place is made of—probably higher, I suspect, than the uranium samples in the ore that has been put back in the trench. However, that is another issue.

I also want to indicate that the area of Mount Gee within the Arkaroola sanctuary, where this operation has taken place, was extensively explored originally in the 1940s but also during the 1960s and 1970s by companies such as CRAE and Exoil and, indeed, the tracks within the Arkaroola sanctuary, where the drilling was taking place, are those original tracks, which have been there for 30 or 40 years, which were originally left in that area by prior exploration—in particular, by Exoil. As part of Marathon's licence to operate on that place, the requirement was to restore those tracks. So, as a result of the operation, some of those pre-existing tracks will be rehabilitated to ensure that they return as near as possible to their natural state, as quickly as possible. However, they had, in fact, been pre-existing, and I think that needs to go on the record.

Marathon Resources has fully cooperated with the government in relation to the investigation. Nevertheless, I can only repeat what I said yesterday: this government will not tolerate, particularly in such sensitive areas, breaches of our conditions. The message goes out to all companies that we expect those conditions to be adhered to.

While I am on that subject, I indicate that PIRSA is currently working closely with the South Australian Chamber of Mines on a revised and upgraded code of practice for mineral explorers in South Australia, which will be released early in 2008. The South Australian Farmers Federation is also engaged in the development of the code. I think that, given the big increase in exploration that we have experienced, it is appropriate that we should upgrade our codes of practice in relation to that and, obviously, the experience in the light of this Marathon incident will certainly be included in that.

I should also point out that there was an independent report on a national scorecard of mining approval processes in 2006, which was released by the Minerals Council of Australia. This scorecard was prepared for the Minerals Council by URS Australia Pty Ltd, environmental consultants, and it reports the results of a workshop involving a representative from each of the five consulting firms that have extensive experience in the mining industry.

That scorecard was developed to assess and compare approval processes in seven state and territory jurisdictions and assess performance against 17 criteria in two key areas, namely, the design and administration of policy and legislation. Of the 17 criteria assessed, South Australia received the highest rating in eight criteria, the second or equal second highest ranking in six criteria and the fourth highest in two criteria.

This state has worked hard to develop the best and most efficient and, at the same time, the most stringent regulatory processes for the mining industry in the country. This government has set out to promote mining, but we realise that that can happen only if there are rigorous and effectively enforced practices and regulations that go with it. I believe that that scorecard, in fact, indicates that we have achieved that, and we intend to ensure that that reputation continues.

There are many ways in which this government does require the reporting and assessment of operations at mineral exploration sites and, certainly, what we have seen with Marathon Resources will simply harden the government's resolve to ensure that those practices and standards are kept and maintained.