In February 2021, the big iron ore mine south of the Roper River let 10 million litres of water go into the Towns River. The water had lots of chemicals in it and they didn’t have permission to let it go into the Towns River.

Lots of heavy metals were found in the river, including: arsenic, aluminium, barium, chromium, cobalt, cyanide, copper, iron, lead, nickel, uranium, and zinc. Some of these are dangerous and poisonous.

That Iron Ore mine is run by Nathan River Resources. The NT Government says that what they did was breaking the law, so the NT Government is now taking the mining company to court. The next court date is April 20th.

Read the full notice here.