WA environmental watchdog clears Gina Rinehart’s $850 million Belisima project
The proposed $850 million gas hub to be operated as a subsidiary of Gina Rinehart’s mining empire will not be assessed by Western Australia’s environmental watchdog, paving the way for development.
Hancock Energy’s Belisima central processing plant will be built approximately 350 kilometers north of Perth in the state’s Mid-West region.
Gas from the Lockyer field in the Perth Basin – Acquired by Rinehart’s company from Mineral Resources in 2024 for $1.1 billion – will be transported to the new facility via a buried pipeline.
The processed gas will then be exported to the Dampier-Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline, Australia’s longest natural gas pipeline.
Construction of the facility will likely take three years and then operate for up to 30 years. It is expected to produce up to 210 terajoules of gas per day.
The project has already received approval from the WA Planning Commission and was submitted to the WA Environmental Protection Authority in May.
Its final report said the proposal’s potential environmental impacts “are not sufficiently significant or unmitigated to warrant formal assessment.”
This was despite 229 applications submitted to the watchdog over a five-week consultation period; of these, 227 requested further consideration of the plan.
“EPA notes that no conservationally important fauna was recorded within the development,” the authority’s report states.
“However, it seems likely that habitat for the Carnaby cockatoo (which is endangered under the EPBC Act and the BC Act) will be created within the development process.
“The proposal could clear up to 0.2 hectares of low to medium quality and up to 2.2 hectares of very low quality black cockatoo foraging habitat.
“Potential habitat may exist for black-striped snake (priority 3) and southern Whiteface (vulnerable under the EPBC Act).
“Possible impacts on terrestrial fauna can be managed effectively.”
Conservation Council WA chief executive Matt Roberts said the move was “a glaring example of how environmental protection laws are being eroded in Western Australia”.
“Of the 229 public submissions submitted, all but two called for consideration of the project, but the EPA ignored the public by waving at a billionaire mining baron’s mega-polluting gas project,” he said.
“The Belisima project was submitted in May 2026, with the CCWA identifying key threats to endangered Carnaby Black Cockatoos due to concerns about clearing native vegetation, cumulative impacts to groundwater and climate-polluting carbon emissions.
“Because the WA government has eroded our state’s environmental laws and failed to set standards, there is no longer a mechanism for the public to hold the EPA accountable for bad decisions like this.”
Hancock Prospecting has been contacted for comment.
Holly Thompson is a journalist at WAtoday specializing in education and the environment.Connect with: X or email.
