‘Real generational uplift’: Victorian gold mine strikes historic profit-sharing deal with traditional owners

CEO Agnico Eagle Mines Ammar Al-Joundi (left), Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation chair Rebecca Phillips, general manager Cassandra Lewis and Vice President Australian operations Agnico Eagle, Ion Hann. Photograph: Stuart Walmsley/The Guardian

The operator of Victoria’s largest gold mine has struck the state’s first voluntary agreement with a First Nations traditional owner group, with the deal to funnel a portion of its annual profits to the Dja Dja Wurrung people.

Agnico Eagle, which operates the Fosterville gold mine in central Victoria, signed the historic agreement with the traditional owner group on Monday.

The agreement comes after evidence at the state’s Indigenous truth-telling commission last month revealed that no percentage of revenue the state reaped from resource extraction had been provided to traditional owners.

The chief executive of the Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation, Rodney Carter, said the agreement would leave a legacy.

“It’s amazing that we will have this money gifted to us that we can now use in our community support programs, supporting Dja Dja Wurrung people and potentially give a real generational uplift to people,” he said.

The agreement will enable the group to have some influence on managing the environmental impact of the mine, including remediation work after it closes. It will also provide employment, training and business opportunities for Dja Dja Wurrung people.

Carter, a Dja Dja Wurrung and Yorta Yorta man, said the funds would help the group continue its environment restoration projects, which focus on introducing plants to improve biodiversity.

The agreement does not disclose the annual financial contribution to the corporation, which is a percentage of the company’s annual profits, Carter said.

Negotiations began in 2017 for the agreement, titled Bakaru Wayaparrangu, which means “in the middle, we all meet” in Dja Dja Wurrung language.

“We believe that for mining to work, it must work for all stakeholders,” Agnico Eagle president and CEO, Ammar Al-Joundi, said.

“We are privileged to operate on Dja Dja Wurrung Country and this agreement allows us to strengthen our ties with the local community through respectful and meaningful engagement, ensuring that we honour our privilege with responsible stewardship.”

The chief executive of the Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations, Paul Paton, said mining had “ravaged our country without traditional owners’ consent or benefit”.

“Bakaru Wayaparrangu represents unprecedented opportunities for nation-building, economic development, and caring for Country, which have been systemically denied since colonisation,” he said in a statement.

“I can’t overstate the importance of this agreement.”

The state’s energy and resources minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, who attended the announcement on Monday, congratulated the parties.

“For an operating mine to share in the wealth of its resource, is a first [in Victoria]. There are many lessons we can all learn from this activity,” she said.

D’Ambrosio said the government was in the process of legislating community benefits sharing for renewable energy projects, which could include traditional owner groups. The government will begin consulting with stakeholders later this year to determine the details of the scheme.

Evidence to the Yoorrook Justice Commission last month revealed that the state’s gold mine royalties since 1851 totalled $287.4bn. But none of this had been directed to Aboriginal-run traditional owner groups.

Dr Lily O’Neill, a senior research fellow for Melbourne Climate Futures at the University of Melbourne, said some voluntary agreements were currently being negotiated due to the fallout from Rio Tinto’s destruction of 46,000-year-old rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia.

O’Neill said she expected more mining companies to enter into voluntary agreements due to the “pressure on companies” to ensure they’re sharing benefits of resource extraction with traditional owners.