Context:

Australia has taken decisive action to ban mining at the Jabiluka site, one of the world’s largest deposits of high-grade uranium, located within Kakadu National Park. 

Key Highlights

• The decision was made in response to the wishes of the Mirarr people, the Indigenous custodians of the land.
• The move to ban mining at the Jabiluka site extends the heritage-listed park to encompass the Jabiluka site.

About the Jabiluka site 

• The Jabiluka deposit in northern Australia is located within the heritage-listed Kakadu National Park, a tropical area known for its gorges and waterfalls, and famously featured in the film "Crocodile Dundee”.
• The Jabiluka site gained significant attention in 2017 when archaeologists unearthed a buried collection of stone axes and tools nearby, dating them back tens of thousands of years. 
• This discovery serves as evidence of the extraordinary and enduring connection Torres Strait Islanders and Aboriginals have with the land.
• The Jabiluka site has been the center of legal disputes between the Mirarr people and mining companies since the discovery of the uranium deposit in the early 1970s. 
• This decision follows the controversy surrounding Rio Tinto’s (company holding mining leases at Jabiluka) destruction of the 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge rock shelters in 2020. 
• The global backlash against the destruction of this Indigenous site has heightened scrutiny on the protection sites. 

Uranium (U)

• It is a radioactive chemical element of the actinoid series of the periodic table, atomic number 92. It is an important nuclear fuel.

Kakadu National Park 

• It is a living cultural landscape in Australia's Northern Territory.
• Kakadu has been home to Aboriginal people for more than 50,000 years, and many of the park’s extensive rock art sites such as Nourlangie and Ubirr, contain some of the world's oldest and most extensive art, date back thousands of years. 
• It's a dual World Heritage Site, recognized for both its exceptional natural and cultural values.
• Detailed paintings reveal insights into hunting and gathering practices, social structure and ritual ceremonies of Indigenous societies from the Pleistocene Epoch until the present.
• It is the largest national park in Australia and one of the largest in the world’s tropics.