Who minds the miners

An analysis of the events, stakeholders, roles and responsibilities and outcomes associated with the desecration of the Sacred Site at Bootu Mine in 2012 from an Aboriginal Corporations perspective. The paper will analyse the implications of the successful prosecution in 2015 of a mining company for breaching the Northern Territory Sacred Sites Protection Act 1978.

As part of this analysis the paper will examine the roles, responsibilities and duties of the various stakeholders to the Approval to a Mining Lease Agreement for the Bootu Creek area, the obligations of specific parties under the NT Sacred Site Protection Act 1978 and assess to what extent the desecration of the site at Bootu Mine breached the Approval to a Mining Lease. 

As part of this examination the paper will chronicle development a chronology the events that led up to the desecration of the sacred site at Bootu mine and the responses of the various stakeholders including those who were signatories to the Approval to the Mining Lease Agreement. The paper will conclude the Identify where policy and policy implementation that may have prevent the desecration of the Sacred Site may have been flawed and identify legal, policy and administrative options for ensuring that such incidents are prevented in the future.