What’s the fight over McPhillamys goldmine about and why has Tanya Plibersek hit out at ‘misinformation’?

Grazing country beside the Belubula River in Blayney, NSW. Tanya Plibersek says her protection order preventing a tailings dam from being built at the river’s headwaters is not a decision to block the McPhillamys mine. Photograph: Emily Wilde/The Guardian

A goldmine in the central-west of New South Wales attracted plenty of heated headlines this week.

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, expressed disappointment over a decision by the federal environment and water minister, Tanya Plibersek, that has put the future of the proposed project in doubt.