Save the Mintabie Town and Opal Fields From Closure

The Mintabie opal fields are under threat, the SA government is closing the township and evicting the residents. Many are old, poor, and have lived and worked in this community for decades. Their life style may not be understood by city politicians, but Mintabie is their home and they should not be sacrificed for political reasons.

The Mintabie town and opal fields are on Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands; one of the main reasons given for shutting down Mintabie is that some businesses have taken financial advantage of the Anangu people. No one should be penalized for the the illegal actions of others. This would be unacceptable in any major population center, and should not be accepted just because Mintabie is a remote community.

A review of mining is to be completed by 30 March 2018, and it is likely that mining will also be stopped.
According to Geological Survey of South Australia's principal geoscientist, Laszlo F Katona, $4 billion worth of opal may remain in the Mintabie field. Opal finds are few and far between, and opal miners move to where the best opal is being found. For opal mining to be a viable as much land as possible must be available to the industry.

If Mintabie is closed it will never be reopened.

See the "Review of the Mintabie Township Lease Agreement" by the Government of South Australia for more information.

There is a petition on change.org to stop Mintabie being closed, please spare a couple of minutes of your time to help the people of Mintabie.
To go to the petition search for "SAVE MINTABIE SOUTH AUSTRALIA change.org"

Here ya go Rod... the shortcut to the petition. :Y:
https://www.change.org/p/kyam-maher...-reconciliation-save-mintabie-south-australia

Done

Further information on the background to the SA Government's proposed actions is available here:
http://minerals.statedevelopment.sa.gov.au/mining/opal_mining/mining_or_residing_in_mintabie

Signed and shared on Twitter.

Done,

Done!!!!

Done :Y:

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Thanks everyone and spread the word. If there is a change of government this weekend then maybe Mintabie will have a chance. Thanks for the links, I haven't done 10 posts and can't put links in yet.

Done :Y:

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The reveiw of the Mintabie lease and township lease agreement itself

I would need to re-read it several times to fully digest it but the tone of the report all but implies that Mintabie is the crime capitol of the world and that it is the source of much of the problematic issues experienced by surrounding indigenous townships. It is scathing of the appearence of the mining township - while being silent on the the fact that you could replace the name Mintabie with those of many other remote settlements and the issues identified would be identical.

The residents themselves do not appear among the signatories to the report. Indeed, the report states that the Mintabie Miners Progress Association were offered the chance for input into the the review but declined - which sounds quite remarkable.

For some reason they appear to be expecting trouble (can't imagine why) as they state that the SA police will maintain a heavy presence during the eviction procedure.

It is 34 km from Mintabie to Marla township, less than 20 km to the border of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands - it seems logical to me that any illicit substances will continue to make their way over with little difficulty.

Again, re-reading might somewhat alter my conclusions but first impression is that the review appears designed to paint Mintabie in the worst light possible and that that the push for closing the settlement and evicting the residents is driven by politics.

Baaa, Baaa.

Done

This looks to be the case that sparked the review:

APY Mintabie store owner fined for taking $1m from customers' accounts through book-up scheme

A store owner in South Australia's remote APY Lands has been fined $167,500 for withdrawing almost $1 million from the accounts of local residents.

The Federal Court previously found the owner of Nobby's Mintabie General Store, Lindsay Gordon Kobelt, had withdrawn the money from the accounts of 85 customers between July 2010 and November 2012.

It was told Kobelt used an informal credit system known as 'book-up' that allows people to buy goods on the spot and pay later by providing their account information.

Nobby's also sold cars and customers had used the book-up arrangement for purchase of second-hand vehicles.

Kobelt had each customer's bank debit card and PIN details and used EFTPOS machines to access the accounts, withdrawing wages or Centrelink benefits about the time they went into the accounts.

Corporate regulator ASIC found Kobelt failed to keep good records of what customers owed him and made deductions well in excess of what people had spent.

The Federal Court found him guilty late last year of unconscionable and unlicensed conduct, finding Kobelt was indifferent and defiant to his obligations under the National Consumer Protection Act.

Click to expand...

Perhaps the rationale is that the scorched earth approach is easier and cheaper than policing - no need to spend money on law enforcement in a community if that community is removed from existence. Which appears legally possible in this special case since the township exists under a special mining lease agreement within traditionally-owned lands.

Looks like a bit of a murky story, far too much to delve deeply into. The review states that one business operator in the town was found by the Federal Court to be guilty of unconscionable conduct (and then presents every other argument possible for closing the place down and evicting everyone).

However, the review pre-dates the Federal Courts final decision on the matter, which appears to have been.....

On 15 February 2018, the Full Federal Court partially upheld an appeal by Mr Lindsay Kobelt, owner and operator of Nobby's Mintabie General Store in the remote South Australian APY Lands, against the decision of a single Judge of the Federal Court.

On 9 November 2016, the Federal Court at first instance found that:

Mr Kobelt's system of providing book up was unconscionable; and
Mr Kobelt had engaged in unlicensed credit activity when selling motor vehicles on book up (refer 16-383MR).
On appeal, the Full Federal Court upheld the original finding that Mr Kobelt engaged in unlicensed credit activity when selling motor vehicles on book up, but otherwise found that Mr Kobelt's system of providing book up was not unconscionable.

The matter has been adjourned to Tuesday 20 February 2018 at 2pm for submissions on final orders.

ASIC is considering the judgment.

Click to expand...

http://asic.gov.au/about-asic/media...t-partially-upholds-book-up-providers-appeal/

So he broke the law by being an unlicensed motor vehicle credit provider (and was subsequently punished) but the court ulitmately rejected the notion that he was sytematically exploiting people. Even if he had been, I'm having some difficulty with the ethics of making every resident in a community pay for the actions of one through extreme measures and it appears that it's only the special legal circumstances surrounding the townships existence that make it lawfully possible to just snuff it out of existence. The review panel are probably taking the punt that nobody will care about the fate of a tiny community in one of the most remote and desolate parts of the country.

I have myself been the victim of politicking between various government departments when one department failed to inform another department that my mining claim was now inside "special vegetation protection zone" (erected in the middle of a century-old mining field ) until it was too late.

Lets hope Mintabie is allowed to go on existing and those who wish to keep calling the place home can can do so.

Wake up Australia!
This is the thin end of the wedge, a precedent for all other opal fields.

I have been doing some research on the Quilpie Opal Mining district in recent years.
I didn't find one lease where the renewed application has been passed outside of Freehold Pastoral leases. These leases are listed as "Renewal Applied For" but not been passed.
This is due to the lapsing of the old ILUA's (Indigenous Land Use Agreement)and no new ones being agreed to.
Last time I wanted to take out a lease the Indigenous Land Council wanted $47,000 for a meeting, we have to pay for accommodation and as many as wish to come, and that's for one meeting. We are expected to pay unto $3000 per application for advertisements alone for exploration. Sorry, we are not Adani!
The government can pass any bills they like and minority groups like opal miners are powerless to stop them.

The Traditional owners aren't getting the financial benefit apart for a fee for a site inspection here in Queensland, the solicitors are getting most of the money.
The last ILUA took many years to agree too, the government under the Liberals paid millions for that, the new government decided they had to be reviewed every 5 years.

There are a number of reasons that Mintebie as a town is to be closed down, a few reasons are as follows;
Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara peoples are not happy with what's going on.
The S.A. government is spending more than twice as much on the town as the financial benefit from opal common out.
Water bore is drying up and is putrid.
There is no ongoing police presence.
Drug dealing and use is rampant.
Pilfering.
The Indigenous Land Use Agreements being breached.
And on and on it goes.

It would take a reasonable ILUA where the traditional custodians and miners could benefit, a reliable water supply, and ten to twenty serious miners armed with D9 dozers to make the field viable again. In the past miners were wearing out the transmission on a D9 every 12 months, those machines now cost well over $1,000,000.
There are also rummers they oil exploration companied area wanting to drill the area.
Same thing happened at Olympic Dam for minerals.

I was told about by a miner 20 years ago as part of the Indigenous Land Use Agreement, The traditional custodians of the land were asking for 3 weeks using the miners equipment (D9 Dozer) on his lease application area before he was allowed to mine.
He packed up and left.

I see someone else has left a link to the damming report. There are other not so favourable documents as well, please read them.

Interesting Keen Ken. So what is happening in the other Opal mining towns, Coober Pedy and Lightning Ridge etc.

Done :Y:

The Traditional owners aren't getting the financial benefit apart for a fee for a site inspection here in Queensland, the solicitors are getting most of the money.

Click to expand...

Yes, that was the impression my experience left me with as well - crushing the life out of the future of small-scale gem mining has been an absolute money honeypot for city law firms

We were able to negotiate collectively together with a lot of other claimholders and reduce the costs down to below $1000 I think. I was informed that if we wanted to negotiate alone it would cost us a minimum of $7000 - $9000 in legal fees to make an agreement. The traditional owners would scarcely see a penny of that, it would virtually all go to a law firm.

My fear is that the costs now incurred by the legislation signal the end of small-scale mining in Australia, perhaps apart from a few government-managed opal and sapphire mining areas where the little bloke might be able to cling on. I believe that Eastern Australia especially is likely one of the great untapped gem reserves of the world - but it will never be tapped now. The legislation has erected barriers that appear insurmountable for anyone without the resources of a mining company.