Key cultural losses at $ 1.8b Pilbara Claims Traditional Owners

Lawyers for Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) say that a compensation request for $ 1.8 billion for the cultural loss made by traditional Pilbara owners is based on “exaggerated” claims.

The closing presentations were completed in the Federal Court this week in the historic legal battle between Yindjibarndi Ngurra Aboriginal Corporation (YNAC) and the iron ore giant owned by Andrew Forrest.

Ynac made legal measures in 2023 after years of claiming that Fortescue never had permission to extract in the Solomon project enormously profitable, 1,400 kilometers north of Perth.

The mining company argues that its operations did not cause direct psychological damage to the community and that YNAC has no right to royalties for the production of iron ore.

Yindjibarndi people were granted an exclusive native title over the area in 2017, the first in the Pilbara, and reviewed its full compensation figure to $ 1.8 billion, from $ 500 million.

Compensation for economic loss, cultural loss, specific destruction of the sites and the cost of providing psychological services to cure community trauma supposedly caused by the “social interruption” of FMG has been requested.

FMG lawyers presented calculations for compensation were “defective”, arguing that the greatest and best use for the unfeated crown land was pastoral use.

“The claim (YNAC) is wrongly focused on a percentage of value royalties for the sale of minerals on Earth,” said Brahma Dhamananda SC to the court.

“The approach must be in the loss value for Yindjibarndi, not any gain obtained by the State or FMG.”

FMG written presentations put a total economic loss due to deterioration of the native title rights of Yindjibarndi at $ 95,197 with a simple added interest.

The WA government lawyers, who are also surveyed in the case, said the request for compensation of billions of dollars for cultural loss was “manifestly excessive.”

They argued that compensation between $ 5 million to $ 10 million would be appropriate.

“The value of the property of this land is very low, leaving aside the question of including the (value of) minerals,” said Griff Ranson SC.

The State appealed to the correlations between the claim of Yindjibarndi and the Superior Court that granted the traditional owners of the Northern Territory $ 2.5 million in 2019.

But Yindjibarndi’s lawyers argued that the spiritual loss sat on a much larger scale than in the Timber Creek case of the territory, with the FMG mining housing compared to the size of Sydney.

“Dingo’s dream tracks are still on the floor there in Timber Creek,” said Tina Jowett SC to the Court.

“The sacred sites of my clients and their dream tracks have been excavated by the ton and are being loaded, even the country of another aboriginal group.

Negotiation timeline

The conversations between Ynac and FMG began in 2007, when YNAC said he was prepared to negotiate an agreement that would respect the desire of traditional owners to protect their country.

The Federal Court heard that Forrest had held a meeting in Roebourne in 2011 to discuss an access agreement to land with a separatist group known as Wirrlu-Murra and Indjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation.

The group was established in 2010.

Yindjibarndi lawyers affirmed that each person who attended received $ 500.

But a division in the community turned out that Fortescue supports the Splinter group.

Last year’s witnesses heard tests last year of Ynac, who explained that the division in the community had only deepened their cultural loss.

However, FMG’s lawyer, Mr. Dharmananda, said that compensation should not be granted by community internal struggles.

The production of iron ore in the Solomon mine is estimated that it is worth $ 50 billion since the operations began in 2013.

The WA government was involved in the federal dispute when Ynac argued that the State could also be responsible for allowing FMG operations to continue.

While the State has never denied that Yindjibarndi is due to compensation, he has always affirmed that the rights of native titles do not include minerals in the field, as established in the WA Mining Law.

The scope of cultural loss

An expert report presented by the anthropologist Kingsley Palmer pointed out the intricate layers of the cultural and spiritual ties of Yindjibarndi with the Hammersley ranges.

“The Earth was granted as a sacred trust,” said the report.

“And Indjibarndi understands that this granting of the Earth constitutes an ‘inheritance’.”

The court heard that the people and Indjibarndi were to blame and feared consequences, such as death, for not protecting the hundreds of culturally significant sites in the Solomon Hub project, which included the care of the earth through rituals.

The life of the mine is positioned to run until 2045, and FMG indicates that it would take another 25 years to rehabilitate the earth.

A decision of the Federal Court is expected to be made at the end of the year or early 2026.