Clean up NT's McArthur River: protesters

Representatives of the Northern Territory's Borroloola Indigenous clan groups are among scores of protesters who have gathered in Sydney to demand miner Glencore close and clean up its McArthur River site in the Top End.

The zinc and lead mine, located about 70km southwest of Borroloola, is polluting the land and waterways and impacting the local communities, protesters say.

It's been a disaster for the people living downstream, Lauren Mellor from the Mineral Policy Institute's Legacy Mines Project said on Thursday.

"Glencore has flouted mining laws and created a mountain of acid-leaching waste rock on the banks of the McArthur River and poisoned the river and its fish with lead," she said.

Garrawa man Conrad Rory told AAP the two-day, 3000km journey from Borroloola to Glencore's Australian headquarters was worth it.

"I feel it's my sacred duty to stand up on behalf of my father (a traditional owner of that country) because he can't make it down here at the moment," he said.

"I've got kids of my own that are growing up and I'd rather see them growing up in a clean and better environment than growing up with the devastation that's happening now."

He said people have to drive 40-50km to go fishing at another river because independent monitoring has deemed the fish from local waterways unsafe to eat.

"The river was our livelihood, we used to depend on that river as a food source," he said.

Glencore must submit an environmental impact assessment by the end of the year detailing how it can prevent further contamination of the river.

Thursday's protest coincides with the company's AGM in Switzerland, with other communities around the world who have been impacted by Glencore mines staging their own protests.