After three years of negotiations, traditional owners represented by the Anindilyakwa Land Council (ALC) and managers at the GEMCO manganese mine have settled on a range of landmark agreements to substantially expand the GEMCO mine, located on Australia’s Groote Eylandt, which will generate new opportunities for traditional owners. The parties had entered into two main agreements, including the expansion of the 50-year-old historical mining operational areas to the east, and a large and comprehensive exploration agreement over the south-west part of Groote Eylandt. They also agreed on how royalties from the mine would flow and how community benefit programmes would be funded.
