Mt Newman Iron Ore Mine started production. In 2009, Kerry and Diana Robinson, representatives of the Marapikurrinya people, began the process of successfully challenging a government attempt to deregister a sacred site at Port Hedland where the iron ore is shipped out. Mr Robinson said, “We have been fighting so hard for our lore and land not to be destroyed…From the beginning when the Mt Newman mining company came to Port Hedland in the 1960’s we have had too many problems… [our clan heritage] getting destroyed every time a mining company comes here hammering and dredging”.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-01/aboriginal-heritage-test-case-port-hedland/6366250
https://www.smh.com.au/national/lore-of-the-land-as-aborigines-take-on-bhp-20090803-e6a6.html
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2011/sep/30/western-australia-rock-art-hard-place
In October 2020 the company’s own environmental report, acquired by ABC news but not made available to the public, revealed that it had exceeded its licence limits for dust levels at Mount Whaleback on 45 days in 2018-19, putting the health of residents in the town of Newman 5km away repeatedly at risk.