Rio Tinto (ASX, LON: RIO) and its Rhodes Ridge Joint Venture partners are investing A$28 million ($20 million) to stop Australia’s destructive cane toad invasion before it reaches the iron ore-rich Pilbara region of Western Australia.

The five-year funding commitment, split equally between Rio Tinto and the joint venture, will support a 7,500-sq.-km Toad Containment Zone between the Indian Ocean and the Great Sandy Desert, south of Broome. Early work is underway, with the project scheduled to begin in 2027.

“Cane toads are on track to reach the Pilbara within two decades — unless we act now,” Curtin University professor Ben Phillips said. “The Toad Containment Zone is a once in a lifetime opportunity to stop one of the world’s worst invasive species in its tracks and protect the region’s unique wildlife.”

The project could help mining companies avoid rising environmental compliance costs and more complicated development approvals if the poisonous amphibians decimate native wildlife. Although cane toads pose no direct threat to iron ore production, their advance could transform ecosystems across one of Australia’s most important mining regions.

Building the barrier

The project will modify or contain 685 water infrastructure items across six pastoral stations, creating a dry corridor designed to prevent the amphibians from advancing south.

Cane toads need water every few days to survive the dry season. In areas where natural supplies are scarce, they rely on artificial watering points used for cattle and irrigation. Researchers plan to make these sources inaccessible to the toads, cutting off the routes that allow them to spread.

“Most other approaches to invasive species have targeted the animal. This is about adapting the environment to make it uninhabitable for them,” Tim Dempster, a marine biologist at Deakin University in Victoria, said. “If we get it right then we won’t have to touch a toad.”

The initiative aims to protect about 27 million hectares of sensitive habitat, where an estimated 25 native species could be significantly affected by the invasion, including the northern quoll and ghost bat.

Cane toads have already killed millions of Australian animals, including snakes, goannas and crocodiles. Introduced to Queensland in 1935 to control beetles damaging sugarcane crops, the South American amphibians largely failed to control the pests and instead spread across northern Australia.

The containment effort draws on decades of scientific research and brings together Curtin University, Deakin University, Indigenous landowners, pastoralists, government and industry.

Mining implications

Rio Tinto’s extensive iron ore operations in the Pilbara make protecting the region’s biodiversity an important consideration for future development.

Dempster warned that mining companies could face significantly higher environmental compliance costs if the invasion damages vulnerable ecosystems.

“The Pilbara is the heartland for Rio so it’s the right thing to do, but it’s an important thing to do for their business as well,” he said.

Rio Tinto’s involvement comes six years after it faced international condemnation for destroying two 46,000-year-old rock shelters sacred to Aboriginal people at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia. Then-chief executive Jean-Sébastien Jacques later told Australian lawmakers the destruction should not have occurred and apologized unreservedly to the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people.

The cane toad invasion presents another threat to Indigenous cultural heritage by reducing populations of native animals traditionally hunted for food, known as bush tucker. Among them are goannas, which can die after eating the poisonous amphibians.

“Cane toads destroy the water and animals. When toads come close to our Country, we want to be there to stop them because we don’t want the Country to be destroyed,” Nyangumarta ranger and Traditional Owner Roberta Hunter said.

Rio Tinto holds a 50% stake in the Rhodes Ridge Joint Venture, alongside Japan’s Mitsui with 40% and AMB Holdings with 10%. The partnership extends industry participation in the conservation effort beyond Rio Tinto’s direct investment.

Chris Osborn, Rio Tinto’s managing director of Pilbara rail, port and services, said the company was working to safeguard the region’s biodiversity through its environmental strategy.

Western Australia’s Environment Minister Matthew Swinbourn said the containment project demonstrated how industry and science could work together to address environmental challenges.

“Keeping cane toads out of the Pilbara would be a major win for Western Australia’s native wildlife,” he said.

The barrier’s success will depend on maintaining the modified water infrastructure across a vast, remote landscape. If effective, the approach could offer a model for managing invasive species elsewhere by removing the resources they need to survive.