added to Australia’s Critical Minerals List<\/a> in late 2023.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/d95080c68ef86cc1cd1288de5d4ab8a5\")
<\/p>\n
Tivan’s Speewah Fluorite Project lies adjacent to the Dunham River, about 175 metres above sea level. (Supplied: Kim Bridge)<\/p>\n
The project site sits in Speewah Valley, adjacent to the Dunham River, which flows into the Ord River downstream of Lake Kununurra.<\/p>\n
Tivan claims the site contains one of the world’s largest high-grade fluorite deposits.<\/p>\n
The company is undertaking a feasibility study for mining and processing operations, and hopes to produce acid-grade fluorspar for international export.<\/p>\n
It maintains it is committed to working with traditional owners beyond the standard requirements, and has entered into multiple agreements with the Kimberley Land Council and Glen Hill Pastoral Aboriginal Corporation.<\/p>\n
But not all traditional owners feel they have been adequately consulted.<\/p>\n
‘We’ve only just been involved’<\/p>\n
Bunuba-Kija traditional owner Millie Hills, who has ancestral ties to the area through her father, said her family was brought into the conversation a year ago despite previous discussions with other groups.<\/p>\n
“We have connection from my dad’s side, which is the Kija-Woolah connection, from his mother and grandmother,” she said.<\/p>\n
“In 1977, my father went out the back of Speewah and took my mum out there five days before he actually got killed on the highway.<\/p>\n
“I knew my dad had connection out there, and we’ve only just been involved in the last 12 months.”<\/p>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/d0c4163a2de1dd9f32e78726d0224ef7\")
<\/p>\n
Millie Hills has ancestral ties to the area through her father. (ABC Rural: Tom Edwards)<\/p>\n
Ms Hills said early talks with Tivan focused more on forming a Prescribed Body Corporate (PBC) and Traditional Owner Negotiation Committee than on addressing traditional owners’ concerns.<\/p>\n
“There are a few family groups that want this development to either stop or move because it’s too close to the Dunham River,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We haven’t had enough talk about objecting to the mining company.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s all about supporting what they want to do and what we can get out of it.”<\/p>\n
She acknowledged each clan group had two representatives in the negotiation process, but said those people needed to consult with their wider families \u2014 which, in her view, had not been happening.<\/p>\n
Cultural and environmental concerns<\/p>\n
Kija traditional owner Kim Bridge, from a prominent family in Halls Creek, voiced “deep opposition” to the proposed mine’s proximity to the Dunham River.<\/p>\n
“River systems are culturally important structures through the Aboriginal belief system,” he said.<\/p>\n
![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/4bb98dcd9547d4b17f5e97633c33a2e1\")
<\/p>\n
Kim Bridge is concerned about the project’s proximity to the Dunham River. (Supplied: Kim Bridge)<\/p>\n
“My deep opposition to this particular [project] is it’s running parallel, side by side, with a wonderful wild river in the East Kimberley, and this wild river concludes at Kununurra.<\/p>\n
“I think if you heard the river speak, it’d be in great concern \u2014 it’d be asking, ‘Why would you even consider such a thing that close to me?'”Tivan responds<\/p>\n
Tivan executive chairman Grant Wilson declined an interview but, in a statement, defended the company’s engagement process.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Tivan has followed an exemplary path over the past three years, including early and extensive engagement with traditional owners and proactive, far-reaching commitments to cultural heritage,” he said.<\/p>\n
“While it is not appropriate for Tivan to comment upon negotiations with the Traditional Owner Negotiation Committees for Nganjuwarr and Yurriyangem Taam, we have dedicated ourselves to these processes to ensure a genuinely inclusive and nation-leading outcome for the Aboriginal communities involved.”<\/p>\n
![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/f0659b8bed3f496825373ae304747f3c\")
<\/p>\n
Grant Wilson says the company has followed an “exemplary” path with its Speewah Fluorite Project. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)<\/p>\n
He said the company would open a Kununurra office in the second quarter of 2026, coinciding with its water licence and environmental approvals processes, which would give the community ample opportunity to understand the project.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a construction and mining conference in Kununurra in August, Mr Wilson acknowledged concerns about the river.<\/p>\n
“It is unfortunate the resource is so close to the river,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We can’t move the river. We can’t move the resource.<\/p>\n
“What we can do is manage it, and we are.”<\/p>\n
Tivan estimated the project would create up to 300 jobs, with around 20 per cent of the workforce expected to be Indigenous.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A proposal to build the country’s first commercial fluorite mine in Western Australia’s far north is facing strong…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12365,64,63,99,140270,140265,140271,140269,22561,37626,140267,140268,140266,74008],"class_list":{"0":"post-233589","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-aboriginal","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-dunham-river","13":"tag-fluorite","14":"tag-fluorspar","15":"tag-grant-wilson","16":"tag-kimberley","17":"tag-kununurra","18":"tag-speewah","19":"tag-speewah-fluorite-project","20":"tag-tivan","21":"tag-traditional-owners"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}