A proposed $850 million gas hub to be operated a subsidiary of Gina Rinehart’s mining empire will not be assessed by Western Australia’s environmental watchdog, clearing the path for development.
Hancock Energy’s Belisima central processing facility will be built about 350 kilometres north of Perth in the state’s Mid West.
Gas from the Lockyer field in the Perth Basin – acquired by Rinehart’s company from Mineral Resources for $1.1 billion in 2024 – 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 – the longest natural gas pipeline in Australia.
Construction of the facility will likely take three years, and will then operate for up to 30 years. It is anticipated to produce as much as 210 terajoules of gas per day.
The project already has approval from the WA Planning Commission, and was submitted to the WA Environmental Protection Authority in May.
Its final report stated that the likely environmental effects of the proposal were “not so significant or unmitigated to warrant formal assessment”.
That was despite 229 submissions handed to the watchdog over a five-week consultation period, 227 of which requested further assessment of the plan.
“The EPA notes that no conservation significant fauna were recorded in the development envelope,” the authority’s report reads.
“However, habitat for Carnaby’s cockatoo (endangered under the EPBC Act and BC Act) is considered likely to occur within the development envelope.
“The proposal may clear up to 0.2 hectares of low to-moderate quality and 2.2 ha of very low-quality black cockatoo foraging habitat.
“Potential habitat may be present for the black striped snake (priority 3) and southern Whiteface (vulnerable under the EPBC Act).
“The likely impacts on terrestrial fauna can be effectively managed.”
Conservation Council WA executive director Matt Roberts said the move was “a glaring example of how environmental protection laws have been eroded in Western Australia”.
“Of the 229 public submissions made, all but two of them called for the project to be assessed, yet the EPA ignored the public in favour of waving through a billionaire mining baron’s mega-polluting gas project,” he said.
“The Belisima project was referred in May 2026, with CCWA identifying key threats to endangered Carnaby’s Black Cockatoos from native vegetation clearing, cumulative impacts to groundwater and concerns over climate polluting carbon emissions.
“Because the WA government has eroded our state’s environment laws and failed to set standards, there’s no longer a mechanism for the public to hold the EPA to account for poor decisions like this one.”
Hancock Prospecting has been contacted for comment.
Holly Thompson is a journalist with WAtoday, specialising in education and the environment.Connect via X or email.
