A company prepared to break ground and extract critical minerals for the country, setting the stage for gold mining to play a significant role in Australia. Unfortunately, a federal protection order halted these plans and rendered the project unviable.

ASX-listed Regis Resources announced that Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s decision to protect Indigenous heritage at the McPhillamys Gold Project would halt the mine because it would be built on Aboriginal land.

Regis Chief Executive Jim Beyer stated that the company was “extremely surprised and disappointed” by Plibersek’s decision to block the development after nearly four years of assessment, according to the Daily Mail.

Plibersek’s decision to block the development followed the discovery that the project would harm protected areas with Indigenous heritage, such as the Belubula River. This specific section of the river is within the area planned for a proposed storage facility that would hold discarded or leftover materials.

The project, which proposed an 11-year open-cut mining operation in the Blayney-Kings Plains district near Bathurst, was expected to create almost 1,000 jobs in the region. The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies, an industry lobby group, said the government order “lacks reason and common sense.”

Plibersek’s reliance on an obscure clause in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act, which permits the lodging of confidential and culturally sensitive information that does not have to be publicly revealed, has raised concerns within the mining industry.

Without knowing the exact reasoning behind her decision, Plibersek has stopped a $1 billion investment in the mine. Aboriginal groups in favor of the project have accused her of “standing in the way of Indigenous economic empowerment.”

This issue follows a series of clashes over resource projects in the country, including an attempt to ban work on two large offshore gas fields.

Concerns arise that private briefings could provide evidence showing the land companies want to develop is protected under the act, effectively killing any ongoing project.

Regis’s Chief Executive said that Plibersek’s suggestion to build the tailings dam further away from the headwaters of Belubula River was not feasible because the approval process for a new site could take up to five years.

Mining industry lobby group AMEC notes that no one benefits from blocking the mine, and some Aboriginal people support their statements.

Plibersek’s refusal to approve the development of the McPhillamys gold mine could become one of the biggest environmental disputes in the country since the land rights campaigns of the 1980s, which stalled multiple developments for decades.