A mining company has been cleared of charges of illegally extracting sand brought by Queensland’s environment department after a five-and-a-half-year prosecution.
Sibelco, the Belgian miner formerly known as Unimin, was found not guilty in the Brisbane magistrates court on Tuesday of two charges of illegally extracting sand as part of its Stradbroke Island operations.
The former Bligh government was warned in 2010 by critics of the company that “technical defences” were available to both charges.
Solicitor Richard Carew, who has acted for Friends of Stradbroke Island and local Indigenous owner Dale Ruska against Sibelco, said the case highlighted “weaknesses in the system” of holding miners to account under environmental law.
“The government needs to look at law reform to ensure mining companies or others cannot use weaknesses in the system to drag out prosecutions,” he said.
“A five and a half year prosecution brings the criminal justice system into disrepute.”
Magistrate Graham Lee did not read out the reasons for his verdict on Tuesday, which are yet to be published.
Sibelco’s spokesman, Paul Smith, welcomed the ruling, saying it “affirms [the company] as a responsible corporate citizen with a genuine commitment to environmental sustainability”.
“The decision supports Sibelco’s position that all activities were in accordance with government regulations,” Smith told the ABC.
However, both the supreme court and the court of appeal have ruled in separate applications brought by Sibelco that it could not lawfully sell non-mineral sand under its mining lease except with local government approval.
The charges brought by the environment department related to extracting the lower grade sand, which the company argued was an unavoidable by-product of its mining.
The company reportedly sold at least 50,000 tonnes of this lower grade sand a year for two decades.
Smith said the government “accepted royalties having full knowledge of the operation” for the entire time the non-mineral sand was extracted.
The government in 2010 declined to act on advice given by a barrister, Peter Callaghan, that there was a “prima facie” case against Sibelco for the charges of stealing and fraud.
These charges would have resulted in proceedings in the district court, where pre-trial processes are shorter than in the magistrates court.
Carew said a matter in the district court would “likely have been concluded within two years”.
The government also brought a third criminal charge against Sibelco under the Forestry Act, alleging it did not have the required permit, one day after the limitation period expired. The charge was dismissed by the magistrate.
The government had six months to lay the charge and was warned by lawyers for Sibelco’s opponents about the approaching deadline.
Sibelco, who faced an end to its Stradbroke mining operations in 2019 under the Bligh Labor government, subsequently spent more than $90,000 campaigning for Campbell Newman in his seat in the 2012 state election.
The Newman government later amended legislation to give the company the option of extending its mine until 2035 and over an extra 700 hectares of bushland.
The Labor opposition complained about the legislation to the crime and corruption commission. The CCC decided not to commence an investigation due to “an absence of evidence in support of a criminal offence by any elected official”.
