Mining on the Gove Peninsula will be finished and its bauxite machinery pulled down and scrapped by 2030 — but some fear the chapter which follows may take more than a generation to complete.

Key points: Mining giant Rio Tinto has started dismantling sections of its mothballed refinery

Mining giant Rio Tinto has started dismantling sections of its mothballed refinery Traditional owners have voiced their wariness about the process

Traditional owners have voiced their wariness about the process Business owners are concerned Rio was "keeping them in the dark" over closure

Mining giant Rio Tinto has begun dismantling its decommissioned Gove refinery, in remote East Arnhem Land in the NT, which was mothballed in 2014, resulting in more than 1,000 workers being sacked.

Smokestacks which once billowed have been scaffolded and stripped down, with work starting on sections which pose a hazard to both humans and the environment.

"It's all about taking down parts of the refinery that are at high risk and would make it unsafe for our people to work in the refinery area," said Gove operations general manager Alysia Tringrove.

"We're actually continuing that work into 2020."

But the plant's removal is a slow process and may not be finished until the eventual ceasing of mining, which Rio Tinto said would not go further than 2030.

"We're still very much in the scoping stage. We're looking at about a 10-year process to fully dismantle it and fully rehabilitate the refinery," Ms Tringrove said.

Rio Tinto Gove operations general manager Alysia Tringrove says the refinery dismantling may take 10 years. ( ABC News: Matt Garrick )

In a later statement, a Rio Tinto spokesman said: "the residue disposal ponds at the Gove refinery site will be rehabilitated to ensure they are safe, stable and non-polluting".

Traditional owner voices wariness

Some of the region's traditional owners have voiced their wariness of the dismantling efforts, and of the rehabilitation process that will follow.

"Closing the refinery will leave a big mess there — big, big mess of rubbish," said Wanyubi Marika, a Rirratjingu traditional owner, and vice-chairman of the Rirratjingu Aboriginal Corporation.

"It's very close to the bay, you never know if the fish are being poisoned.

"They need to fix it up properly."

Rirratjingu elder and the NT Senior Australian of the Year for 2020, Banduk Marika, said she too had concerns about Rio Tinto properly rehabilitating the refinery site.

"There's possibly impacts on wildlife, yes, absolutely," Ms Marika said.

The clan has land ownership over a now-toxic site known as the 'red mud ponds', filled with chemical waste from the former plant, which Rirratjingu chief executive John Hughes said may have to be monitored for more than 100 years after closure.

Banduk Marika had concerns about Rio Tinto properly rehabilitating the refinery site. ( Supplied: Culture is Life )

"The refinery has been processing caustic substances for decades," Mr Hughes said.

"There are different estimates, but [we understand] it will be 120 years before there'll be no more need for monitoring.

"In theory, this could be a problem in 108 years from now; this structure [at the red mud ponds] may then prove to be defective in some way."

Ms Tringrove said she did not know exactly how long it would take for the environment around the red mud ponds to be completely free from toxic chemicals.

"I think with a lot of rehabilitation or closure work there is an element of unknown," she said.

'I'll take Rio at their word': Gumatj chief executive

Another prominent East Arnhem clan, the Gumatj, lays claim to much of the land where the refinery currently sits.

Mining giant Rio Tinto has begun the dismantling of its decommissioned Gove refinery. ( Supplied: Rio Tinto )

Gumatj Aboriginal Corporation chief executive Klaus Helms, who has been in the region since the beginning of mining through to its looming demise, said he wanted to trust the international company would follow proper procedure.

"I took Alusuisse at their word, I took Nabalco at their word, I took Alcan at their word, and I guess I'm going to have to take Rio at their word," Mr Helms said.

He said he hoped the site would help benefit Yolngu in the future, after the plant was eventually fully removed.

"It's important for the Indigenous people to have industry other than mining, or apart from mining, that doesn't just rely on Rio Tinto," Mr Helms said.

Small business hold concerns for town future

When Rio Tinto ups stumps, the future of the nearby Nhulunbuy township — which currently houses a population of 3,000 — will then be up in the air.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 57 seconds 57 s The Rio Tinto refinery in Gove is in the early stages of being dismantled.

NT Government officials say the town will be prepared for the inevitable post-mining eventuality, but some business owners remain apprehensive about what comes next.

"I hope it's not the case, but I imagine they'll leave us in the dark," said Arnhem Allied Health Centre owner Sarah Fincham-Thomson.

"And then it'll hit us pretty quickly and then we'll be left to sort it out on our own again. That's what I sort of expect [but] I hope Rio has learnt from the harm that it brought on people from a business sense but also from a personal sense [in 2014].

"A lot of people suffered."

Beth Regan, owner of the Kamayan Cafe, echoed the concerns.

"I think the way that things are happening, we hope that everything should be ok, but I don't think Rio has concern of the small businesses in town," Ms Regan said.

The town's long-term head public servant, Jim Rogers, said the NT Government was positioning to take a lead role in Nhulunbuy's future without Rio Tinto.

Once Rio Tinto relinquishes its lease over the Nhulunbuy township, the land will be returned to Yolngu traditional owners, to decide on the town's prospects.

Gove's regional executive director Jim Rogers and Developing East Arnhem Limited's Jordy Bowman are optimistic about the town's future. ( ABC News: Matt Garrick )

"We're planning … to deal with all the big questions that have to happen around transition — land tenure, town governance, essential services, and those sort of things that have to be resolved between here and there to have a really strong service centre into the future," Mr Rogers said.

One sector which has recently been flagged as a possibility for helping diversify the region's economy is the space industry, said Developing East Arnhem Limited chief executive Jordy Bowman.

Ms Bowman said plans to launch rockets at a new Arnhem Space Base as soon as this year were progressing and would create "opportunities to build the workforce" in years to come.