The NT Water Controller is facing calls to reject a big new water licence. 

Mining company Australian Ilmenite Resources (AIR) is seeking permission to extract 3.3 billion litres (3,300ML) of water every year from the Roper River for a mine located around 100 kilometres east of Mataranka.

Aboriginal elders and pastoralists want to protect the precious resource. The Roper River is the NT’s second-largest, and remains the lifeblood of the communities it flows through.

AIR gained NT Environmental Protection Agency approval to begin mining in 2012, with a licence for about half the amount of water it is now applying for.

The company now says it hopes to produce 100,000-120,000 tonnes of ilmenite every year, but will need extra water to do so.

However, AIR’s application carries the concession that the “ability to predict the potential impacts … is very limited” because “there has not been detailed water assessment of water availability carried out as part of a water allocation plan”.

Reports say the NT Environment Protection Authority has told AIR it does not need to refer its plans back for assessment, despite doubling its water requirements, if “the mining operations are consistent with the project that was assessed”.

More details are accessible here.