{"id":605895,"date":"2026-04-14T08:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T08:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/605895\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T08:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T08:48:11","slug":"financial-environmental-and-safety-issues-emerge-at-nathan-river-resources-roper-bar-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/605895\/","title":{"rendered":"Financial, environmental and safety issues emerge at Nathan River Resources’ Roper Bar mine"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Northern Territory government is being accused of weak regulation at an embattled remote iron ore mine, as financial, environmental and safety issues emerge after workers were stood down.<\/p>\n

Since Good Friday, Nathan River Resources (NRR) has stood down more than 40 workers without pay<\/a> at its Roper Bar site, located 600 kilometres south-east of Darwin.<\/p>\n

In a letter to workers, seen by the ABC, NRR blamed the fuel crisis for its financial predicament.<\/p>\n

But unions have downplayed the impact of fuel, labelling it an excuse, and saying the mine has been mismanaged for months.<\/p>\n

Iron ore workers stood down with no pay<\/a><\/p>\n

A Northern Territory mine has stood down workers and stopped operations, blaming the high price of fuel. Unions say that’s “rubbish”.<\/p>\n

They say workers are owed weeks of wages and months of superannuation, while contractors and suppliers are out of pocket.<\/p>\n

Queensland-based contractor Brendan Haines supplied road trains and side tippers to the mine for five months last year and claimed he was owed $218,000.<\/p>\n

“We’ve had to sell two trucks to keep ourselves afloat. It’s not a good thing because we’re trying to grow our business as a small family business, but we can’t because they obviously owe us a heap of money,” he said.<\/p>\n

“This shouldn’t happen to small businesses like ourselves and a lot of other people.”\"A<\/p>\n

Contractors who worked for the company say they’re still waiting to be paid thousands of dollars. (Supplied: Nathan River Resources)<\/p>\n

Mr Haines said the NT government should have intervened at the mine, considering it granted NRR its licence after conducting a “fit and proper person” test.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Queensland-based contractor Brendan Haines says Nathan River Mine still owes him thousands of dollars. (Supplied: Brendan Haines)<\/p>\n

“They should have shut it down, to be honest with you,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot of people that will probably be affected financially and mentally out of this.”<\/p>\n

An injured employee on workers’ compensation told the ABC the NT government’s work safety regulator was told months ago that several workers on the scheme were not being paid.<\/p>\n

Environmental and safety issues raised<\/p>\n

NT organiser at the Electrical Trades Union David Hayes said he had also received reports from workers concerned about apparent pollution caused by the mine.<\/p>\n

The ABC has obtained pictures of seemingly polluted waterways near the mine, taken last year.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Union representative David Hayes says the union has received multiple complaints about apparent pollution from workers. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“The information we’re getting about the pollution out there \u2026 is an absolute concern and should be a concern for the NT government and the traditional owners of that area,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The information coming to us is really exposing some of the bad practices out there, obviously for some time, and we need regulators to get out there and have a good look at this operation and get it cleaned up.”<\/p>\n

The NT Department of Lands, Planning and Environment (DLPE) said the pictures related to an incident reported to the NT’s pollution hotline in December, which was still being investigated.<\/p>\n

The DLPE said it was also “reviewing” a “spill” self-reported by NRR last Saturday at the nearby Bing Bong Port loading facility haul road.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The union says the apparent pollution should be a concern for the NT government. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Mr Hayes said workers were also worried about safety issues at the mine.<\/p>\n

He said NT WorkSafe last inspected the site in 2025, but gave notice to NRR before arriving.<\/p>\n

“It gave the mine the opportunity to hide all their deficiencies, so the regulator wouldn’t have got a good picture of what’s going on out there,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Whether it be the vessels up at the port, whether it be the mining operations, whether it be the accommodation facilities, the whole lot \u2014 it’s an absolute mess.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

David Hayes says there needs to be resourcing for regulators to visit regional sites. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)<\/p>\n

Mr Hayes said the NT government needed to properly fund its regulators to better inspect “rogue operators” like NRR.<\/p>\n

“We need to resource our regulators so they can get out to these sites and that’s been a problem for a long time,” he said.<\/p>\n

“WorkSafe and organisations like that haven’t got resources to spend time in our regional and remote areas.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Gerard Maley says he has made the minister for WorkSafe aware of some of the concerns raised about the mine. (ABC News: Xavier Martin)<\/p>\n

NT Mining Minister Gerard Maley said the DLPE was “actively working” with NRR “into matters within its remit”.<\/p>\n

“Noting the department’s role does not extend to the company’s day-to-day employment matters,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Employment matters are the responsibility of the company, and we expect them to meet all relevant workplace obligations.<\/p>\n

“I have made the minister responsible for WorkSafe aware of these matters.”<\/p>\n

NRR and NT Worksafe have been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Northern Territory government is being accused of weak regulation at an embattled remote iron ore mine, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,28201,73846,294862,294865,294861,236201,294866,128,294863,294864,29790],"class_list":{"0":"post-605895","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-fracking","12":"tag-iron-ore","13":"tag-mining-nt","14":"tag-mining-rights","15":"tag-nathan-river-mine","16":"tag-nt-mine","17":"tag-roper-bar-mine","18":"tag-science","19":"tag-unpaid-super","20":"tag-workers-not-paid","21":"tag-workers-rights"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605895","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=605895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}