PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley has reportedly requested privately-held Perdaman to temporarily cease works on its A$4.5-billion Karratha urea project, in Western Australia, while the government considers concerns raised by Traditional Owners around potential damage to World Heritage-nominated Aboriginal rock art.

The Burrup Peninsula, which is known as Murujuga by Indigenous Australians, contains what is widely considered the world’s oldest and largest art gallery, comprising more than one-million pieces of rock art, carved into the rock over the course of approximately 40 000 years.

The rock art has been found to be highly sensitive to the emissions produced by heavy industry and independent scientific studies have already established an ongoing pattern of degradation of the surface rock, into which the many images are carved, a statement by the Conservation Council of Western Australia said on Friday.

Traditional Owners from Murujuga reportedly wrote to Ley earlier this year, requesting the use of emergency powers to protect the rock art and other sacred sites from further encroachment by heavy industry.

The Karratha project was granted Major Project status by the Australian government last year, and was granted Significant Project status by the Western Australian government. The plant will transform natural gas into urea, a widely used form of fertiliser for production of food for the future generation. Perdaman has secured natural gas for 20 years from Woodside under the gas supply agreement signed in November 2018.

The facility will produce two-million tons of urea a year, estimated to generate more than $850-million a year in export earnings for Western Australia, and will provide 200 permanent jobs in Karratha.

Perdaman is hoping to achieve full production at the project by the second quarter of 2025.

WAToday this week reported that Ley had requested Perdaman ensure it does not disturb ancient heritage sites, including three rock art sites that it has permission to remove under state legislation, while the Department of Environment responds to the concerns raised by Traditional Owners.

Perdaman was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.