{"id":726898,"date":"2026-06-10T07:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T07:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/726898\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T07:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T07:28:12","slug":"traditional-owners-2-million-loss-as-nathan-river-resources-collapses-undermines-promises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/726898\/","title":{"rendered":"Traditional owners’ $2 million loss as Nathan River Resources collapses ‘undermines’ promises"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Northern Land Council says Nathan River Resources’ [NRR] failure to pay it more than $2 million in royalties before it collapsed undermines the promises it made to traditional owners.<\/p>\n

NRR went into administration in late May with about $360 million owed to a range of creditors<\/a> including the NT government and traditional owners.<\/p>\n

This followed a prolonged period of financial trouble where the company also stood down workers without pay in April and stopped operations at the Roper Bar site, 600 kilometres south-east of Darwin.<\/p>\n

The ABC understands Aboriginal people in the nearby town of Borroloola who were employed by NRR were also owed several weeks of unpaid wages.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Yuseph Deen said traditional owners agreed to mining activities on the basis that companies would meet their end of the deal. (Supplied: Northern Land Council)<\/p>\n

The Northern Land Council [NLC] represents traditional owners in these matters and CEO Yuseph Deen said royalties were paid to deliver economic benefits to communities close to the mine.<\/p>\n

He said NRR’s failure to pay would have serious impacts on the community.<\/p>\n

“Given the history of mining and exploration activities on native title land in the region the impact of the unpaid monies is significant,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Native title holders have agreed to mining activities on the basis that companies will comply with their obligations, including making agreed payments.<\/p>\n

“When those payments are not made it undermines the benefits that native title holders were promised in return for allowing for the use of their land.”\"A<\/p>\n

Road trains had transported ore from the\u00a0mine to the Bing Bong port. (ABC News:\u00a0Michael Franchi)<\/p>\n

Traditional owners were also concerned about the environmental impact of the mine and whether the site would ever be rehabilitated given NRR’s financial problems.<\/p>\n

Staff have alleged NRR’s operations were polluting the environment near the loading, barging and mining operation.<\/p>\n

Mr Deen said rehabilitating the site was critical to protect the long-term interests of Aboriginal communities in the region, and expected the NT government to enforce this.<\/p>\n

“The NLC expects that there should be appropriate security arrangements in place with the NT government so that if a mining company becomes insolvent rehabilitation can still be carried out without delay and costs to native title holders,” he said.<\/p>\n

An NT government spokesperson said authorities would continue to monitor NRR operations to ensure environmental obligations were met.<\/p>\n

\"Discoloured<\/p>\n

Staff have alleged operations were unsafe and polluting near the loading, barging and mining operation. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Taxpayer also owed royalties<\/p>\n

The NT government has also missed out on receiving royalties and payroll tax from NRR, with almost $9 million owed according to ASIC documents.<\/p>\n

Unions and contractors impacted by NRR’s collapse have previously said the NT government should have stepped in earlier.<\/p>\n

A government spokesperson said employment matters were NRR’s responsibility, and the government expected the company to comply with workplace laws.<\/p>\n

“The government has been in direct contact with the mine regarding these expectations,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

“The Department of Mining and Energy has also engaged with the Fair Work Ombudsman to ensure relevant information is available to affected employees.”<\/p>\n

The ABC has attempted to contact Nathan River Resources multiple times since April and is yet to receive a response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Northern Land Council says Nathan River Resources’ [NRR] failure to pay it more than $2 million in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[6014,64,63,99,39868,6827,291784,351073,8123],"class_list":["post-726898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-administration","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-collapse","tag-mining","tag-nathan-river","tag-nathan-river-resources","tag-resources"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726898","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=726898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}