Millions in mining royalties to Aboriginal clan groups set to end across the NT | ABC News

On a far-flung tip of Australia, this ageing hulk of an alumina refinery is slowly being dismantled.
Its rusting remains torn down, scrapped and shipped out.
It's part of an expansive mining operation in north-east Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, run by multinational firm Rio Tinto, that's preparing to stop digging out bauxite by 2030.
Over its five decades, Gove Operations has generated thousands of jobs for the territory.
It has also produced hundreds of millions of dollars in mining royalties for surrounding Yolŋu communities on whose land these haul trucks and conveyor belts run.
When the mining operations end, so too will the royalties.
With just a few short years remaining, clan elders are acutely aware of the risks ahead - wary their people may soon be facing one of the greatest challenges of their generation.
Rio Tinto's mine brought millions of dollars and deep divisions to north-east Arnhem Land. What happens when the company's money flow suddenly stops?
Djawa Yunupiŋu was just a boy when the bulldozers rolled into Arnhem Land in the 1960s.
Back then, Swiss consortium Nabalco had struck an agreement with the Commonwealth to mine the area for bauxite - the raw material of aluminium, to help produce the world's trains, cars and cans.
The problem was, it was Yolŋu land, and Nabalco wasn't paying rent.
"It still hurts me," says Djawa, now aged 64, staring out to the mining company's export wharf from his home community of Gunyaŋara.
"Because in those days, we tried hard to reach an agreement with Nabalco - all they said was no.
"And that hurt our people."
The Gumatj clan leader has watched the world change since those early days.
Over the ensuing decades, the tides - like those of his coastal waters - began to turn.
Arrears were owed to the land's original occupants, and the mining industry accepted the cost.
By 2011, Rio Tinto had taken over the Gove Operations mining lease, and was ready to sign a landmark agreement with the Yolŋu landowners of the Gumatj, Rirratjiŋu and Galpu clans.
At the time, both the ABC and News Corp reported the confidential Gove Agreement was worth around $700 million to the Yolŋu over the duration of the company's 42-year lease.
While it's difficult to calculate exactly, analysis of annual reports by the Gumatj and Rirratjiŋu clans show both have attracted tens of millions in royalties over the past five years alone.
But the edge of the royalties cliff is looming.
"I'd just hate to see my people from this community lining up at Centrelink," Djawa says.
"Get back to welfare. I just don't want to see that.
"Whatever royalties we're getting now, we have to save 'em, for the future of our kids."
Clan leaders acknowledge there's long been a critical stereotype that the millions paid to Aboriginal clans in statutory royalties are often squandered - spent on flash cars and at the pub.
But Djawa believes his Gumatj clan has invested its majority share of the Gove Agreement royalties, more than 70 per cent, wisely enough to stop a flood of people from sitting at home on the dole.
"The thought there was to get [my people] away from welfare, join the workforce," he says.
"The Gumatj has started like 10 businesses here - woodworks, work at our own mining company, we've got a sawmill to cut trees, a coffee shop and retail [business]."
The Gumatj sawmill continues to prosper.
Its stringybark timber lines some of the Northern Territory's prestige builds, from Darwin's botanic gardens visitors centre to shade structures and a car park outside parliament house.
However, on the day the ABC visits, just one Yolŋu worker has turned up for the day's labour. The other employees are out bush for bäpurru (Yolŋu funeral ceremonies).
Long-time employee Jeffrey Dhurrkay says he's constantly trying to convince family to go to work.
"When the mine closes, this will be running, but we do need workers to come, especially Yolŋu, to come in and work here to run this company," Dhurrkay says.
"We need to just keep it going … for our children, and our children's children."
Others are also making moves to ensure the Yolŋu are ready for the precarious future post-mining.
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