Site desecrated for profit, NT court hears A MINING company damaged and desecrated an Aboriginal sacred site in the Northern Territory for commercial reasons, a landmark court case has heard. Prosecutor Andrew Collett told Darwin Magistrates Court on Friday that OM (Manganese) Ltd was trying to maximise profit at the expense of the site. "It did the things because it was interested in keeping up with its target," he told magistrate Sue Oliver. An ordinary mining company in ordinary conditions would have not have continued with that conduct. The case is believed to be the first prosecution of a company in Australia for desecrating a sacred site. OM (Manganese) is alleged to have damaged and desecrated the Two Women Sitting Down sacred site at Bootu Creek, about 170km north of Tennant Creek. The subsidiary of OM Holdings Ltd has admitted damaging the site, but it is contesting two separate charges of desecration. The first count relates to the collapse of March 20 of a large piece of rock that protruded horizontally from the top of a section of rock at the site. When that rock, known locally as the Horse's Head, fell off, much of the sacred character of the area disappeared, the court heard. To the Kunapa people the site at Bootu Creek relates to a dreaming story about a marsupial rat and a bandicoot that had a fight over bush tucker. The blood from the creatures spilled out onto the rocks, turning them a dark red colour now associated with manganese. Mr Collett said the manganese miner had insulted the sacred site and treated it with contempt. The second act of desecration occurred between September 10 and September 30 when the miner failed to fix problems at the mine site, and so caused further damage, prosecutors allege. Peter Quinlan SC, acting for the miner, said that far from ignoring the problems, his client was awaiting instructions to go ahead with remediation works. "Every time the defendant is given the go-ahead to do the remedial works, it responds immediately," he told the hearing's final day on Friday. Desecrating a site involved an attitude or disposition towards treating an area with contempt, and his client had not wanted to harm the site. "The defendant's disposition was nothing other than respectful," he told the court. Mr Quinlan said there was no evidence blasting had occurred immediately prior to the horizontal arm of rock collapsing in March, or that the miner had undertaken more mining in September. Magistrate Sue Oliver reserved her decision and said she would publish her judgment at a later date.