Terri Irwin Fighting to Block Mining in Wildlife Zone

May 12, 2008 -- The widow of the Australian conservationist and entertainer Steve Irwin said Monday she would fight to stop a wildlife zone dedicated to her husband being mined for bauxite.

Terri Irwin said the 135,000-hectare (333,450-acre) Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve on Cape York Peninsula in Australia's far northeast was home to a number of vulnerable species and needed to be protected.

The lease to the site, purchased by an Irwin family company with the help of the Australian government in 2006 and renamed in tribute to the "Croc Hunter", is the subject of an application from a mining company to mine 50 million tonnes of bauxite, she said.

Terri Irwin, who is the mother of Irwin's two children Bindi, nine, and Bob, four, said she would take the legal fight as far as possible.

"Setting aside this land will not break the bank for (mining company) Cape Alumina, and yet it would make such a huge difference environmentally," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Irwin said the reserve was home to a number of rare plant and animal species.