| The first full round of negotiations bringing all of the parties together to discuss the future of the Century Zinc mining project in Queensland's gulf country has concluded in Mt Isa.
The negotiations are being conducted under the Native Title Act, and the National Native Title Tribunal has been asked to mediate.
The parties to the negotiations are the mining company Century Zinc Limited, the State of Queensland and the Aboriginal claimant groups who are exercising their "right to negotiate" under the Native Title Act.
The negotiations for the minesite and pipeline are scheduled to conclude on 13 February next year. If no agreement is reached by then, and if there is no agreement to extend the negotiation period, the parties can request arbitration by the National Native Title Tribunal on these matters.
Tribunal Members, Mr Rick Farley and Dr Mary Edmunds, chaired this week's talks, which began on Monday 16 December 1996.
The parties agreed that only Mr Farley and Dr Edmunds should make public comment on the negotiations held this week and that comments should be confined to process and not the issues under discussion.
The Tribunal members described this week's talks as exploratory.
"Each of the parties tabled initial positions and big issues were identified, and discussed in some detail," Mr Farley and Dr Edmunds said.
"Those positions will be assessed over the next few weeks."
A number of issues were left to lie on the table for responses at the next round of negotiations, which will occur in the week beginning 13 January.
All the parties said their objective was to reach an agreement by 13 February. "We anticipate a third round of negotiations at the end of January," the Members said.
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