A gold mining company has been accused of "deceiving" residents of a small Northern Territory town, after it partially amended a proposed exploration licence less than 24 hours after it had said its application had been withdrawn.
Last week, Bacchus Resources told the ABC that it had withdrawn the exploration licence application for an area around Adelaide River following community backlash.
However, exploration maps made publicly available on the Northern Territory government website this week revealed that Bacchus's application had been amended, not withdrawn.
Resident Annika Schweiger did not trust the word of Bacchus executives when they said the exploration application had been withdrawn.
"I went in to find out if the application had actually been pulled, as it sounded like when we all heard on Thursday," she said.
"I had a bit of a … feeling that it probably was still ongoing. I just thought, business-wise, why would they spend all the money, put the application in, pay the fees, just to pull it out before actually seeing that process through?
"[It] doesn't really make sense from a business point of view."
According to the Northern Territory government's tenure of geoscience information, Bacchus amended its application on Thursday, April 6, reducing the size of the exploration area by 41 square kilometres, including a number of rural properties on Strickland Road.
Chief geologist and chief executive David Ward had told the ABC the application for an exploration licence in the Adelaide River area had been withdrawn.
In response to the ABC's questions, Bacchus did not specify that it intended to only remove a specific area from its application.
"They could've quite easily worded it saying that 'we're just removing a few blocks', and that would've been very clear," Ms Schweiger said.
"I think it was quite deceiving in the words they used, it was quite disappointing."
Representatives of Bacchus Resources did not respond to the ABC's questions or offer for an interview.
Mining Minister Nicole Manison said it was not uncommon for mining companies to remove objecting landowners from proposed mineral exploration areas.
"We find that we've got many exploration licences out there, but whether they translate into actual mining, it doesn't happen a great deal," she said.
"But there is a consultation process with it. People can have their say and, often, those mining companies — as we've seen in other areas — will take out some of those properties because they want to have good, constructive working relationships with those people on the ground.
"When people do raise those concerns, they are taken very, very seriously."
Residents call for more freehold land protections
Ms Schweiger and her partner, Reed Fisher, own properties south of the Adelaide River township, both of which are covered by Bacchus' proposed mineral exploration.
Because they're expecting their first child, they've put in an enormous amount of work on their property.
"We had no access to the property, so we've had to build a road in there, build a house, do all the septic, water, set up solar because there's no power there," Mr Fisher said.
"We've had to sell a lot of assets in my company to pay for all of that, machinery and trucks, so we've had to sacrifice a lot of things to go in that direction."
Mr Fisher said any proposed mineral exploration would leave him and his family with little say over what happens on their land if mineral deposits were discovered.
"I don't think it's real good that someone can just come along and say they want to do something now on your land — freehold land," he said.
"I'm the one all that outlaid all the money, and then they just come along reaping the benefits."
He said he was not against mining, but that mining companies should be leasing or buying their own land if they want to conduct exploration.
"Start off the process where it's not on someone's freehold land," Mr Fisher said.
"It could be in Humpty Doo, Berry Springs. You don't know where they want to mine. Nothing's stopping them from doing it at the moment."
Local member Dheran Young said he would "always advocate" for his constituents, but said the topic of mining exploration was not "heavily raised" with him at a mobile booth in the town this week.
"The Northern Territory has a comprehensive legislative framework in place that guides mining exploration — and people do get to have their say," Mr Young said.
Editor's Note 22/05/23: In information provided to the ABC post-publication, Bacchus has clarified its statement, which referenced withdrawing the exploration licence application for the area around Adelaide River, was not to mean a full withdrawal of the application but a withdrawal of a specific area, which in effect resulted in an amended application.
