Forced to halt

the traditional owners of the Jabiluka uranium mine site in Australia won a reprieve in their battle to halt the project when the company, Energy Resources Australia ( era ), "temporarily" suspended work. The company said the decision to stop work on the underground tunnel to the ore body was because of "technical and scheduling reasons". The decision opens the way for completing the cultural heritage management plan requested by the World Heritage Committee last December. era had continued work in defiance of the committee, which asked for work to stop while it assessed the world heritage values of Kakadu National Park, near Jabiluka.

The traditional owners, the Mirrar people, had refused to cooperate with the plan until work was halted.