Welcome to Country – Liberty Industrial’s Gove Refinery Project with Rio Tinto

Traditional Owner’s Official ‘Welcome to Country’ Event with Rio Tinto

On 6th December 2022, the Liberty Industrial team joined up with the Rio Tinto team in Banyan Park at the Gove Refinery in Northern Territory to participate in the Traditional Owner’s official ‘Welcome to Country’ cultural ceremony of music, song and dance held by ten members of the Gumatj Clan.

During the event, speeches were made by Gumatj Traditional Owner, Djawa Burarrwang, Rio Tinto Australian Chief Executive, Kellie Parker, Rio Tinto General Manager Ben Fullerton and our Liberty Industrial director Simon Gill which was followed by morning tea.

About Rio Tinto’s Gove Refinery Decontamination, Demolition and Disposal

Rio Tinto mines approximately 11.8 million tonnes of Bauxite annually at the Gove Peninsula, located at the northeastern corner of Arnhem Land in Northern Territory. While mining continues, Rio Tinto have decided to undergo a 10-year process of decommissioning and dismantling infrastructure and then rehabilitating the land, all which will be eventually returned to the Yolngu Traditional Owners.

Liberty Industrial were engaged by Rio Tinto to assist with the decontamination, demolition and disposal works for the Gove Refinery project.

Facing numerous key challenges of working in a remote location and other complexities of the project.

Our Liberty team were able to generate robust solutions to address these challenges from our close collaboration with Rio Tinto during the early works phase where we demonstrated industry leading demolition methodologies of high-risk structures and comprehensive management plans including compliance with health and safety protocols. Our extensive inventory of plants and equipment such as Liberty Industrial’s custom-built 200-ton excavators that’s capable of ultra-high reach functionalities were deployed on-site, along with the construction of water treatment plants capable of treating and recycling contaminated wastewater.

Local subcontractors and Traditional Owners are also engaged with our Liberty Industrial team since the beginning of the project and its ongoing work status, as part of our focus and commitment of working with the local and Indigenous community and providing mutually beneficial initiatives, work opportunities through demolition traineeships and supporting the Australia economy.