Traditional Owners awarded $54m-plus compo over mine

Gudanji man Casey Davey said at that time sacred and significant sites had been damaged by mining operations.

"Our totem is right there where they dug up the dirt for the river diversion and the open cut," he said.

"We need to be paid back for that and for the damage to our sacred trees. It's sad for us, what happened at the mine, especially what happened to our sites."

On Friday in Darwin, Justice Katrina Banks-Smith awarded $54 million compensation for cultural loss and $743,408 for economic loss, plus interest.

The NT government and Mount Isa Mines Ltd penned The McArthur River Project deal in November 1992 over one of the world's largest deposits of zinc and lead.

It enabled dirt to be broken at Glencore's McArthur River Mine and Bing Bong Port on the Gulf of Carpentaria about 750km east of Darwin.

The region's Traditional Owners fought to stop development at the site, including the move from underground to open-cut operations.

Despite success in the NT Supreme Court, the Territory government repeatedly passed legislation approving more growth at the mine.

"There is no doubt that the impact of the mine and the port on the rights and interests of the claim group is beyond those particular sites," Justice Banks-Smith said on Friday.

"It is intergenerational and enduring."

The open-cut mine and river diversion had irreversibly disturbed "dreaming sites and routes", she said.

Diminution of connection to Country was a compensable loss, the judge found.

The open-cut mine and port developments on the claim group's land had resulted in ongoing cultural loss.

"In the end, that is no small thing," she said.

In 2007, the McArthur River Mine Community Benefits Trust fund was set up to help local Aboriginal people. 

The trust's website says it has invested more than $22 million in over 160 projects since then.

Justice Banks-Smith has delayed publication of her full reasons.