Bligh says mine tax not threatening Chalco

Premier Anna Bligh has joined Chinese aluminium giant Chalco in rejecting speculation it is planning to scrap two aluminium projects in Queensland due to the resources super profits tax.

Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek seized on the media reports in State Parliament yesterday.

The State Government gave Chalco approval to mine aluminium at Aurukun on Cape York, in the far north, on the condition it establishes a refinery on the state's east coast, probably in Bowen.

Ms Bligh says Chalco is struggling to get the projects off the ground because global economic conditions have made the refinery a less attractive prospect.

"We've seen both through the GFC [global financial crisis] and other world conditions a very significant drop in the world aluminium price and I recommend that you go and have a look at it and think what it might be like trying to get a project over the line that's a secondary processing facility at the moment," she said.

Mine court challenge

Meanwhile, a company that wants to mine bauxite on western Cape York has welcomed a High Court challenge over the State Government's Wild Rivers legislation.

Native title holders have lodged a writ against the Government, arguing the declaration of the Lockhart, Stewart and Archer rivers is a violation of the Native Title Act and Racial Discrimination Act.

Cape Alumina's managing director says the Government's declaration of the Wenlock River, last week, has threatened the company's $1.2 billion bauxite mine.

Paul Messenger says the mine would have created about 80 jobs for Indigenous people.

"We support Noel and Gerhardt Peason's challenge in the High Court over the Wild Rivers because it has now become clear that Wild Rivers isn't about the environment, it's about dispossessing Aboriginal people their rights to their land and we support traditional owners and Aboriginal people to assert their rights," he said.