Nicole Roocke, director of Western Australia's Chamber of Minerals and Energy, is amongst the many people who are apprehensive that a heritage listing for the Kimberley region by the government will lead to restrictions on the region’s mining and exploration development.
She said that the decision to add the 19 million square km region of the west Kimberly to a heritage list will add another layer of bureaucracy to the approval process. This would increase the project costs in the region, cause delays and make financing tougher.
Environment Minister Tony Burke said the region which has been added to the heritage site list includes the West Kimberley coast from Cape Leveque to Cambridge Gulf, the Kimberley plateau, the Fitzroy River and land south of the Oscar and Napier ranges.
Nicole Roocke added that now that the decision had been made companies would have to go back and review the feasibility of their projects and make a determination as to whether the viability of their projects will be impacted. She thought there will certainly be serious consideration given by companies to whether the project are or will continue to be viable with this listing.
Graham Short of the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies said that this added layer of government approval for projects in the area would affect investment in the mining sector. He said that the federal government should hand over the environmental assessment and approval powers to the state government to reduce bureaucracy.
Rob Gillam the president of the Pastoralists and Graziers Association said that the heritage listing was a "slap in the face" for Western Australia's pastoral industry. This area has been under the stewardship of pastoralists for in excess of a hundred years, and in some cases nearly 130 years now, and it's still being described as being in pristine state, he said.