Australian Court Awards Yindjibarndi Record A$150.1 Million Over Fortescue's Unauthorized Mining

The Indigenous traditional owners of land in north-western Australia won a record A$150.1 million ($108.3 million; £79.9 million) payout after a court ruled that one of the country's best-known billionaires mined their land without permission.

The decision marks the largest native title payout ever awarded in Australia. It ends a long legal battle between the Yindjibarndi people and Andrew Forrest's mining company Fortescue.

Fortescue's mines have generated tens of billions of dollars in revenue since 2013 by extracting iron ore from Yindjibarndi land in remote north Western Australia.

The Yindjibarndi argued that figure equaled 1 percent of the production value profit from the mines. They also sought compensation for the loss of around 250 cultural sites and their cultural connection to the land.

Federal Court Justice Stephen Burley acknowledged the Yindjibarndi's "deep and visceral connection" to their land, which affected all aspects of their lives. On Tuesday, he found Fortescue liable for economic loss valued at A$150,000 and cultural loss valued at A$150 million.

Burley described the cultural loss "as compensation for loss or diminution of traditional attachment to the land or connection to country and for loss of rights to gain spiritual sustenance from the land."

The claim against Fortescue was first lodged in 2017. That followed a court award of exclusive native title rights over a 2,700-square-kilometer area in the mineral-rich Pilbara region to the Yindjibarndi Ngurra Aboriginal Corporation (YNAC).

Fortescue had already spent several years establishing its lucrative Solomon Hub mines on the land. It had permission from both the government and a local Aboriginal representative group, but not from YNAC.

Failure to negotiate a land use agreement between YNAC and Fortescue sparked the nearly 20-year legal battle, which concluded on Tuesday.

The historic payout is almost three times the amount of Australia's next largest court-mandated compensation to native title owners. Even so, some elders expressed disappointment with the figure.

Yindjibarndi elder Wendy Hubert called the payout "peanuts" compared to Fortescue's immense earnings over the years, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. She spoke outside the court on Tuesday.