In the late 1970s, the federal government was keen to open up uranium mining in the Kakadu region. First cab off the rank was the Ranger mine which was imposed on local communities despite the clear opposition of the of Mirarr Traditional Owners.

The nearby Jabiluka deposit, also on Mirarr land, was next in line. After six years of ‘negotiations’ over Ranger which ended in the mine being imposed against their wishes, the Mirarr and other Traditional Owners were exhausted. Despite their clear and continued opposition to Jabiluka, another two years of ‘consultation’ was forced upon them. People felt that the relentless meetings would continue until they complied with the government’s agenda and in 1982 then Senior Mirarr Traditional Owner Toby Ganagle said he was too tired to fight any more this was taken as consent for Jabiluka.

The mine remained undeveloped because of the federal Labor government’s no-new-uranium-mines policy from 1983-96.

Senior Mirarr Traditional Owner Yvonne Margarula with friends.

When the Howard government was elected in 1996 with an open-slather uranium mining policy ERA was keen to push ahead with Jabiluka. Mirarr remained steadfast in their opposition to further mining on their country and began working with supporters in the environment, peace, anti-nuclear and Indigenous movements from across the country and around the world.

The result was a huge domestic and international campaign against the proposed mine. The campaign involved inquiries by Australia’s Parliament, legal challenges to the mine, a national speaking tour of traditional owners, a protest camp hosting 5,000 people over eight months (527 of whom were arrested in peaceful protests – including Senior Traditional Owner Yvonne Margarula), large rallies in all major Australian cities, mobilisation of a national and international support base of tens of thousands of people, a speaking tour in Europe, lobbying to various international bodies including UNESCO (the World Heritage Committee recommended suspension of work at Jabiluka due to threats to Kakadu’s World Heritage values) and the UNHCHR, the European Parliament (which passed a resolution against Jabiluka in 1998) and the US Congress (members of which wrote a letter in support of Mirarr to President Clinton) and much more. Yvonne Margarula and the then Executive Officer of the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation, Jacqui Katona, jointly received the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1999 and in 1998 Yvonne was awarded the Friends of the Earth International Nuclear Free Future Award in recognition of her work on the campaign. These phenomenal efforts resulted in stopping the Jabiluka mine. The Mirarr signed an agreement with Rio Tinto in 2005 that prevents the mine’s development without the written consent of the Traditional Owners.

The Mirarr never accepted the inevitability of mining at Jabiluka, despite constant company, industry and government assurances that the project would go ahead. In their struggle to protect their country and culture they made Jabiluka a millstone for one of the world’s largest resource companies and have redefined future resource conflicts in Australia and internationally by elevating the rights of Indigenous people everywhere to determine what happens to their country and their community.

The Mirarr remain clear in their continued opposition to mining at Jabiluka and maintain their long-standing commitment to seeing the area permanently protected.

More information:

• Gundjehmi Aboriginal Corporation www.mirarr.net
• Environment Centre of the Northern Territory www.ecnt.org
• Australian Conservation Foundation www.acfonline.org.au/be-informed/northern-australia-and-nuclear-free
• Senate References and Legislation Committee, October 2003, “Regulating the Ranger, Jabiluka, Beverly and Honeymoon uranium mines”, http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Custom_Contents/SenateCommittees/ecitactte/completedinquiries/200204/uranium/report

Below: Fight for Country

[This webpage last updated November 2014.]

Mt Painter is located 110 kms north-east of Leigh Creek in the Lake Frome area of South Australia. The Mt Painter uranium deposit is sometimes confused with the nearby Mt Gee deposit, and has also been referred to as Armchair and Streitberg. In general it is best to think of the region as a series of small deposits known as Mt Painter. The Mt Gee − Mt Painter mineralisation is also the source of uranium in the palaeochannels around Beverley, a few kilometres east.

Uranium-bearing minerals were discovered in the region by G.A. Greenwood, son of a local pastoralist and prospector, in 1910. This discovery, on what was later named Radium Ridge, was exploited for radium by the Radium Extraction Company of South Australia Ltd (RECSAL). Many prominent locals from the nearby mining town of Leigh Creek bought shares in RECSAL, in the spirit of the mining boom of the time.

The company opened up several other deposits during the next two years, the largest being the No. 6 workings near Mt Painter. Ore was shipped to Europe until the outbreak of war in 1914 and the company went into liquidation in 1917. (Sir) Douglas Mawson had some uranium from the region shipped to France, where Nobel Prize winner Madam Marie Curie was involved in radioactivity research.

The workings were reopened in 1923 by what was to become the Australian Radium Corporation. Lack of water prevented the erection of a leaching plant on site, and a small crushing and screening plant gave unsatisfactory results. Camels were used in the rugged terrain to carry crude concentrate and hand-picked ore to less hilly country, where it was transferred to motor lorry and carted to the railway at Copley. From there it was railed to the Dry Creek treatment plant. Both the Mount Painter and Radium Hill deposits were mined intermittently until the early 1930s, when mining ceased. The minerals were processed for their radium content which commanded a high price for the use in medicine. Uranium itself had little use then and interest only increased after 1939 with the discovery of nuclear fission. The Australian Radium Corporation ceased operations in 1932.

Exploration at Mt Painter resumed in 1944 in conjunction with re-examination of Radium Hill and other uranium deposits for potential use in allied nuclear weapons projects.

SA Premier Tom Playford (second from left) and Prime Minister Ben Chifley (right) at Mt Painter, 1947.

Roads were constructed into the workings and camps erected, but the deposits proved to be low grade and uneconomic. Drilling and underground development was continued at East Painter by the South Australian government. The East Painter Camp accommodated up to 60 workers and was equipped with a canteen, bunkhouses, and garages. The project was abandoned in 1950 and the East Painter Camp dismantled.

Between 1968 and 1971, a consortium of mining companies discovered further uranium deposits including the richest and most easily accessible at the Hodgkinson Project. The total uranium resource outlined at Mt Painter by Oilmin was about 3,800 tonnes of U3O8 at an average grade of 0.1%. Transoil also prospected with Oilmin at Mt Painter. More than 7,000 tonnes of U3O8 in a number of small deposits were located. Like Oilmin and Petromin, Transoil was partly controlled by the interests of Bjelke Petersen, the ex-Premier of Queensland.

The Mt Painter region saw further exploration through a joint venture between Goldstream Mining NL (75%) and Bonanza Gold Pty Ltd (25%), with Goldstream as the operator. The program was of concern to many local Adnyamathanha Traditional Owners. In August 1999 Goldstream announced “significant uranium mineralisation” but follow-up work apparently failed to identify any significant new deposit. Goldstream then abandoned uranium exploration in the Mt Painter region.

MORE INFORMATION

• SEA-US: http://web.archive.org/web/20060624103751/http:/www.sea-us.org.au/oldmines/mtpainter.html
• old newspaper articles, photos etc: http://trove.nla.gov.au/result?q=mt+painter+uranium
• www.southaustralianhistory.com.au/uranium.htm
• http://austhrutime.com/arkaroola.htm
• www.history.sa.gov.au/history/conference/R_Keith_Johns.pdf
• Mt Painter photo gallery: http://web.archive.org/web/20060822050520/http://www.sea-us.org.au/oldmines/mtpaintgall.html

Above: Camels being loaded with hand selected ore at the No. 6 workings, near Mt Painter, at about 1912. The ore was carried west along the camel pad at the base of Radium Ridge to Blue Mine Creek for motorised transport to the railway at Copley. The dark outcrop at top left is mainly hematite, and contains the uranium minerals.

Above: Transferring supplies from motor lorry to camel near Blue Mine Creek in 1926. The lorry carted ore and concentrates to Copley for railing to the Dry Creek radium extraction plant.

Above: Concentrating plant at the No. 6 workings in 1926. Bagged ore was dropped from the mine to the plant down a chute at top left. One of the workers is emptying ore into a small belt-driven jaw crusher; the crushed rock was fed into the ball-mill at right for grinding prior to sieving. The product was sent to the treatment plant at Dry Creek

Above: No. 6 workings and concentrating plant at about 1930. The ore crops out at upper left, with a small open cut and mullock heap to the right. The main ore chute leads to a wooden storage bin just above the concentrating plant roof.

Above: Camels at Mt Painter Camp in 1944. Radium Ridge, site of the original uranium discovery, is in the background. Camels were preferred to horses owing to the lack of permanent water in the area. A well which produced good quality water was sunk a few metres from the eucalypt tree at extreme right.

Above: A 1947 view of East Painter Camp which accommodated up to sixty workers and was equipped with a canteen, bunk-houses, and garages. It was erected in 1944 and dismantled in 1950.

Above: Department of Mines diamond drilling at East Painter in 1947; East Painter Camp is behind the trees.

Above: Government geologists engaged in mapping and prospecting at Mount Painter in 1947. The prominent hill in the background is The Armchair.

Above: Mullock being dumped at the mouth of an East Painter exploratory adit (mine entrance). Mount Painter is in the background.

Above: Official visit to the East Painter Camp in 1947. Mark Oliphant, the atomic physicist (later Governor of South Australia), is seated fourth from left next to the South Australian Premier, Thomas Playford. The Governor, Sir Willoughby Norrie, is seated to the Premier’s left, and seated at extreme right is Ben Dickinson, Director of the Department of Mines.

Above: A map of the uranium deposits in the Mt Painter region.

[This entry is a lightly edited version of material compiled and written by Dr Gavin Mudd and posted at the SEA-US archive.]

[This webpage last updated July 2012.]

Marathon Resources planned to establish a uranium mine at Mt Gee in the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary (AWS). In 2008 the company was found to have illegally disposed of radioactive waste near Mt Gee. Although its exploration licence was later renewed, the South Australian government announced in 2011 that mining would not be permitted in the AWS.

Approximately 100 exploration holes were drilled at Mt Gee between 1969 and 1971 by the Oilmin Group. (Oilmin also discovered the nearby Beverley deposit to the east around the same time. The Mt Gee − Mt Painter mineralisation is also the source of uranium in the palaeochannels around Beverley.)

A May 1972 ‘Report of the Committee on Environment in South Australia’ by the SA government said that “if the exploration had been conducted under the provisions of the latest legislation, much less despoilation of the landscape might have occurred”. History would repeat itself with Marathon’s illegal and substandard practices at Mt Gee 40 years later.

In 2006, Marathon began uranium exploration at Yankalilla, near Myponga on SA’s Fleurieu Peninsula. Marathon chair Peter Williams said at the company AGM in November 2007: “For Marathon, at Myponga our exploration program met with a powerful community campaign that led to uranium exploration being ruled out in that location by the South Australian Government.” Then SA Premier Mike Rann said: “Under Don Dunstan’s 1971 Mining Act companies have a legal right to explore, but while I’m premier of the state there will be no uranium mining established anywhere near the Myponga Reservoir.”

History would repeat itself with the SA government’s 2011 decision to ban mining in the AWS. The Sprigg family, who have owned and run an eco-tourism operation at Arkaroola for many years, spearheaded the campaign against mining at Arkaroola. The AWS is on the Register of the National Estate and it is a Sanctuary under the National Parks and Wildlife Act. It is an Environmental Class A zone under the SA Development Act which only allows mining when the deposits are of such significance that all other considerations may be overridden. The Sanctuary is home to rare and endangered species including the yellow-footed rock wallaby and the short-tailed grass wren. Sir Douglas Mawson described Arkaroola as “one great open-air museum of geological history”.

Marathon has had some colourful shareholder connections, including the China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC) with strong connections to the Chinese military; and Ken Talbot, who was awaiting trial on charges of bribing a Queensland government minister at the time of his death in 2010. (And to the east of Mt Gee, the equally colourful Neal Blue, CEO of General Atomics / Heathgate, operates the Beverley uranium mine.)

In 2007 Marathon initiated a pre-feasibility study and an environmental impact study for Mt Gee. Marathon proposed an underground hard rock mine (tunneling into Mt Gee) and a new heavy haulage road across the Sanctuary to transport two million tonnes of ore annually to a processing site to be built somewhere on the plains near Lake Frome.

In September 2008, Marathon announced a resource estimate at Mt Gee with indicated resources of 2800 tonnes and inferred resources of 28,500 tonnes U3O8, with 0.03% cut-off.

ILLEGAL WASTE BURIAL

In early 2008, Marathon Resources was caught illegally dumping thousands of drill samples in the Mt Gee region. Illegally dumped material included 22,800 calico bags containing drill cuttings, 16 steel and four plastic drums, 1500 empty plastic bags, folding seats, tyres, safety suits, aluminium trays, PVC pipes, oil and air filters, bottles and cans and polystyrene foam.

The SA government said that Marathon had breached its exploration licence conditions through:

• The unauthorised disposal by shallow burial of approximately 22,800 exploration drill cuttings and assay samples contained in plastic and calico bags along with general waste in “The Frypan” area at Mt Gee.
• The unauthorised disposal by shallow burial of general waste including burnt cardboard boxes and plastic bags in the Mt Gee West area in a temporary water sump used during exploration drilling operations.
• The unauthorised disposal by shallow burial of approximately 1700 assay samples contained in plastic and calico bags within 16 plastic and steel drums (approx 200 litres capacity) in the Hodgkinson area by burial in a temporary water containment sump used during exploration drilling operations.

In addition, the AWS managers noted other problems with Marathon’s activities at Mt Gee:

• numerous hydrocarbon spills;
• Marathon’s contractors stole 90,000 litres of rainwater;
• Marathon employee/s stole fluorite from the Mt Gee Geological Monument; and
• failure to follow safety procedures resulting in loss of wildlife.

In January 2008 the SA government indefinitely suspended Marathon’s exploration licence.

It is important to note that Marathon’s illegal activities were uncovered by detective work by the managers of the AWS; most likely governmental ‘oversight’ and ‘regulation’ would not have uncovered the illegal activities.

Before, during and after its illegal environmental activities at Mt Gee, the company promulgated familiar rhetoric. Marathon chair Peter Williams said at the company’s 2007 Annual General Meeting: “Building a world-class project with world-class environmental and safety standards is a challenging task, but we believe we have the right systems in place to achieve our goals”

Marathon became embroiled in a legal dispute with former Marathon CEO Stuart Hall, partly in relation to the company’s illegal activities.

In August 2008, the SA Department of Primary Industries and Resources approved a clean-up plan by Marathon. All mineral samples, including those containing naturally occurring radioactive minerals, were removed from bags and drums and re-buried under two metres of clean and compacted soil. The clean-up was approved by the SA government in April 2009.

Marathon chair Peter Williams said: “Throughout the review process, I came to the difficult realisation that this incident may in fact have been symptomatic of our culture and Marathon’s overall approach.”

PROTECTION FOR ARKAROOLA

In October 2009, the SA government announced it would allow Marathon to resume exploration at Mt Gee. However in July 2011, the SA government announced that exploration and mining would be banned in the AWS. Then SA Premier Mike Rann said the government would pursue a three-step process:

• preserving the area from operation under the Mining Act by proclamation, thus preventing future exploration and mining titles being granted in the area;
• enacting special purpose legislation to protect the natural, cultural and landscape values of the area in perpetuity and to prohibit mining, mineral exploration and grazing in the ranges; and
• nominating the area for listing on the National Heritage List, and seeking to have it nominated for World Heritage listing.

The SA government made a $5 million ex gratia payment to Marathon Resources in early 2012, acknowledging the costs incurred by the company during exploration. The payment was made despite the SA government’s stated view that it was under “absolutely no legal obligation to make a payment to Marathon Resources or its subsidiaries as a result of the decision to protect the Arkaroola region.” The government stressed that its granting of an exploration licence in no way committed it to permit mining. As a consequence of the agreement, Marathon ceased Supreme Court litigation against the government and the matter has been settled.

Marathon spent $20 million on Mt Gee in capitalised costs and $10m in written-off direct costs according to a report in The Australian. Marathon chair Peter Williams said the company had spent $15.8 million in exploration work at Mt Gee.

Seventy-two percent of South Australians wanted mining banned in the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary (82% according to another poll), and supporters of the ban included former Liberal Senator Nick Minchin and SA Liberal MP Iain Evans.

Supporters of uranium mining in the Sanctuary included AWU dullard Paul Howes. The decision to protect Arkaroola from mining was also opposed by the Australian Uranium Association and the SA Chamber of Mines and Energy. The Chamber’s CEO Jason Kuchel said: “the mining industry in this state has exhibited an exhaustive yet highly successful co-operative approach to environmental protection, cultural sustainability, workplace safety and site rehabilitation”.

Adnyamathanha Traditional Owners are divided on mining at Mt Gee. Vince Coulthard, Adnyamathanha Traditional Lands Association (ATLA) chairperson and a supporter of mining at Mt Gee, said he felt sad for the “old people” in the area who had been “totally overlooked” by the Premier with his decision to ban mining. However under Mr Coulthard’s leadership, a breakaway group of Adnyamathanha Elders has formed in opposition to ATLA.

Adnyamathanha woman Dr Jillian Marsh said: “Mt Gee is a very significant area to the Adnyamathanha people. It is in the path of Akurra the great spiritual serpent that drank Manda (Lake Frome) dry and travelled back to Yakki water hole where he now rests. Some Adnyamathanha today may not readily acknowledge the importance of our cultural knowledge about the Mount Gee area, but many of us know: ‘If the Akurra’s Back is Broken our Heritage will be destroyed forever’.”

After the government decision to protect Arkaroola, Adnyamathanha Elder Enice Marsh said it was a dream come true for Indigenous people to know the area would be protected. “I just want to thank the people that persevered with this and kept coming to our meetings so that we could document all this,” she said.

In November 2010, SA mining laws were revised to toughen penalties for companies guilty of breaches such as Marathon’s illegal waste dumping.

A bill to ban mining in the AWS passed the SA Parliament in February 2012. The Greens succeeded in making changes in the Upper House, including a requirement for traditional owners to be consulted over management.

In addition to its impact on Mt Gee, the protection of Arkaroola effectively reduced by 38% the size of exploration licence 3666 in which Alliance Resources holds a quarter interest.

UPDATE:

Radioactive waste being stored in shed in Arkaroola

Bryan Littlely, December 25, 2012

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/radioactive-waste-being-stored-in-shed-in-arkaroola/story-e6frea83-1226543320645

IT’S the nuclear-waste facility that few people know about – 21 barrels of medium- to high-level radioactive material stored in a tin shed in South Australia’s Outback paradise.

The waste is in the heart of Arkaroola, the Outback wilderness sanctuary the State Government hopes will one day be included on the World Heritage list.

The facility, known as Painter Camp, is not registered under the Radiation Protection Act and a management plan for its safe and secure operation is still being developed. …

The Department of Manufacturing, Innovation, Trade, Resources and Energy inherited the radioactive materials and Painter Camp in October after it advised Marathon Resources on how to upgrade the facility.

The EPA and Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary also were consulted in the upgrade, which added a series of secure above-ground vaults for storing trays of drilling core samples, and the storage shed. …

An EPA spokesperson said DMITRE has applied to have the facility, which sits in a gully in the shadows of uranium-rich Mt Gee and Arkaroola’s famed Ridge Top Track, registered under the Radiation Protection Act.

The EPA did not elaborate on the radiation levels of the materials, however, it is known radiation levels of the materials stored inside the barrels were too high for it to be returned to the ground during a rectification clean-up Marathon was ordered to take by the EPA in 2009. Most of the barrels now in the shed had been buried by Marathon as a way of disposing of them.

MORE INFORMATION

Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary including the Sprigg’s campaign against mining at Mt Gee:

• www.savearkaroola.com.au
• www.arkaroola.com.au/mt_gee.php
• www.arkaroola.com.au/breakingnews.php
• www.arkaroola.com.au/mining.php

Lots of information and photos by Bill Doyle: http://unknownsa.blogspot.com.au

Information on mining at Mt Painter and photo galleries of Mt Painter and Mt Gee:

http://web.archive.org/web/20060624103751/http://www.sea-us.org.au/oldmines/mtpainter.html

Marathon Resources: www.marathonresources.com.au

Documents on the Mt Gee mining application:

http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/epbc/epbc_ap.pl?name=referral_detail&proposal_id=3716

Photos of Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/liamjon-d/sets/72157627428327947/with/5731838041/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/liamjon-d/sets/72157626746395156/with/5731838041/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/liamjon-d/sets/72157602426525519

SA Greens MLC Mark Parnell: www.markparnell.org.au/campaign.php?campaignn=19.

If and when that website disappears, here is an archive: http://web.archive.org/web/20110706125226/http://www.markparnell.org.au/campaign.php?campaignn=19

30-second TV advert to protect Arkaroola from mining: http://www.vimeo.com/14730140

Reports on Marathon’s illegal activities:

• SA government (PIRSA) May 2008 report into Marathon’s illegal activities: http://www.markparnell.org.au/uploads/Arkaroola_PIRSA%20Final%20Report_8May08.pdf
• an earlier (January 2008) report by PIRSA: http://www.markparnell.org.au/uploads/Marathon_PIRSA%20investigation_16Jan08.pdf
• the clean-up (rectification) plan: www.pir.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/78194/EL3258_Rectification_Plan_11Aug08.pdf
• background statement to the clean-up (rectification) plan: www.pir.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/word_doc/0007/78505/Background_Statement_to_PIRSA_release_of_Rectification_Plan_140808.doc
• http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/08/18/2338793.htm
• http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/04/29/2555433.htm
• http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/13/2712821.htm
• http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26036377-2702,00.html

Some news reports on the decision to ban mining in the AWS:

• Ladies and gentlemen – we won!
• Arkaroola wilderness mining ban welcomed
• (Then) Premier Mike Rann’s statement to Parliament: http://hansard.parliament.sa.gov.au/pages/loaddoc.aspx?e=1&eD=2011_07_26&c=16
• Premier Mike Rann announces permanent protection for Arkaroola
• Mike Rann: The man who ‘saved’ Arkaroola
• Historic day as Arkaroola finally gets permanent protection
• Wilderness mining ban passes both SA houses
• Tougher mining breach penalties passed in SA
• Editorial: Rann decision on Arkaroola must be hailed
• Smithson: Arkaroola move a win for all
• Angry miners feel shafted on Arkaroola
• Business: ‘Pro-mining’ image takes a hit
• Opponents condemn $5m wilderness mining compensation
• Marathon starts legal fight over Arkaroola mining ban

Friends of the Earth ‘Radioactive Exposure Tour’ — visit to Arkaroola, 2008.

[This webpage last updated July 2012.]

Rum Jungle is about 64 kilometres south of Darwin in the Northern Territory, among the headwaters of the East Finniss River.

The Rum Jungle mining project operated from 1954 to 1971. Processing of uranium and copper continued from stockpiles until April 1971 although uranium ore had last been extracted in 1963.

A total of 863,000 tonnes of uranium ore were processed, the average grade was 0.28-0.41%, and 3,520 tonnes of U3O8 were produced from various Rum Jungle deposits − White’s (U-Cu-Pb), Dyson’s (U), Rum Jungle Creek South (U), and Mt Burton (U-Cu).

HISTORY

Uranium and copper mineralisation was discovered in the Rum Jungle area in 1869 by Goyder’s survey party, but it was not recognised as such until 1949. In April 1948 an announcement in the Commonwealth Gazette stated that rewards would be paid for the discovery of uranium in Australia and its territories. The maximum amount of the reward was fixed at £25,000. Time Magazine reported on 15 September 1952:

From Darwin to Melbourne, the word had got around that Australia’s vast, tropical Northern Territory was bursting with uranium. Hundreds of adventurous young men from Australia’s overcrowded southern cities, plus many an old gold fossicker from West Australia, were making their way up through the desert by jeeps, horse-drawn wagons, on horseback, even in airplanes. In Darwin, Geiger counters were sold out as fast as they came into the store. One newspaper advertised counters: “Find Uranium and Make Your Fortune.” The excitement had begun at Rum Jungle, 60 miles south of Darwin, where a prospector named Jack White uncovered a three-mile-long lode of uranium-bearing ore in 1949.

In March 1952, representatives of the United States Atomic Energy Commission (USAEC) and of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) visited Australia to discuss, among other things, the development of the Rum Jungle uranium field. This led to the provision of funds to develop the Rum Jungle project by the Combined Development Agency and the signing of an exclusive supply contract between the Commonwealth and the CDA. The uranium produced between the commencement of production in 1954 and January 1963 was used to fill the supply contract with the CDA for use in nuclear weapons.

The Commonwealth entered into a contract with the Consolidated Zinc Group in August 1952 to develop and operate the Rum Jungle project. In the same year Consolidated Zinc formed a wholly-owned subsidiary, Territory Enterprises Pty Ltd (TEP) to manage all aspects of the operation including exploration, mining and milling. (In 1962, Consolidated Zinc merged with the Rio Tinto Mining Company of Australia Ltd to form Conzinc Riotinto of Australia Ltd or CRA.)

The town of Batchelor was redeveloped to service the mine. Batchelor became a booming township with a power station, acres of suburban homes, a hotel, a community centre, and a population of 500. Many workers lived in seriously sub-standard conditions. In 1956, a Melbourne newspaper ran a front-page story describing the conditions at the “Rum Jungle Hell Hole”. Security at the mine site was tokenistic.

In addition to supplying the CDA, some uranium was put on the open market, and some uranium was stored at Lucas Heights in southern Sydney. About 2,000 tonnes of yellowcake was stockpiled by the time the mine closed in 1971. In 1994, 239 tonnes of Rum Jungle uranium oxide were sold to a US utility, leaving 1814 tonnes still stockpiled. The remainder was sold in subsequent years.

Uranium ore from other deposits − including the Eva deposit near the Queensland border, and Adelaide River − was processed at Rum Jungle.

ENVIRONMENTAL MISMANAGEMENT

From the start of processing operations in 1954, the discharge of tailings was unconstrained and the solids settled out, while the acidic supernatant liquors drained into ‘Old Tailings Creek’ and thence to the East Branch of the Finniss River, 0.8 km to the west. Barren liquors from copper launders constructed between the plant site and the Old Tailings Dam also flowed into the East Branch via Old Tailings Creek.

Thus in the early period of operation, there was not even a dam wall to contain the tailings, which were simply discharged onto a flat plain and allowed to drain into the river. Successive walls were then built and washed away by floods until, in 1961, the tailings were discharged into disused (but presumably quite porous) open-cuts rather than onto the flat plain.

The tailings were redirected to Dyson’s Open Cut in 1961, the copper launders were relocated from the Old Tailings Dam area to a site adjacent to Dyson’s Open Cut, and a system of controlled discharges was introduced. Under this system, spent process liquors were collected during the Dry Season, in two dams fitted with sluices that were constructed across the East Branch of the Finniss River. With the onset of the Wet Season, fresh water entered both these dams and a relatively unpolluted tributary which was also dammed (called the Sweet Water Dam). When the river flooded, all dams were breached, releasing water to the East Branch through the diversion channel and White’s Open Cut. At that time, it was considered that this procedure would provide sufficient dilution to allow safe discharge of water. More recent calculations have shown that the policy of “safe dilution” could not have worked.

The practice was abandoned between 1965 and 1968 when tailings were directed to White’s Open Cut, the walls in the riverbed were breached, spent process liquor (called raffinate) was directed either to the copper heap leach site or directly to White’s Open Cut, and partial recycling of raffinate commenced in the treatment plant. This method of effluent disposal continued until operations ceased in 1971.

The 1970 report of a Senate Select Committee on Water Pollution said: “One of the major pollution problems in the Northern Territory is that caused by copper and uranium mining at Rum Jungle. The strongly acidic effluent from the treatment plant flows via the East Finniss River into the Finniss River, making the water unsuitable for either stock or human consumption for a distance of 20 river miles. Vegetation on the river banks has been destroyed and it will be many years before this area can sustain growth.”

The mining company Conzinc (now part of the Rio Tinto Group) has consistently denied any responsibility for rehabilitation.

The Australian Atomic Energy Commission, the Commonwealth government nuclear agency based at Lucas Heights, lied about the extent of the environmental damage at Rum Jungle, obfuscated, and refused to release relevant information to other government bodies (see SEA-US and The Age 1/12/76).

The saga also reveals complicity between government and companies. In June 1971, Mr R. E. Felgenner, First Assistant Secretary, Northern Territory Economic Affairs, presented to his Minister a submission in which he sought approval to investigate the situation at Rum Jungle. In the submission he said: “Early in 1962 the Minister for Territories informed the Minister for National Development that, while the source of pollution has been established beyond doubt and constituted an offence against the provisions of the Control of Waters Ordinance, he was reluctant to proceed against the companies for reasons of their association with the Commonwealth in the venture.”

REHABILITATION AND RECREATION

An initial attempt to clean up Rum Jungle was made in 1977, which led to the setting up of a working group to examine more comprehensive rehabilitation. A $16.2 million Commonwealth-funded program got under way in 1983-88. A supplementary $1.8 million program to improve Rum Jungle Creek South waste dumps was undertaken in 1990-91.

One of the principal problems associated with rehabilitating the Rum Jungle Creek South (RJCS) open cut was that the area was converted to a lake after mining ceased, and as the only crocodile-free water body in the Darwin region, the site quickly became very popular with locals and Darwin residents as a recreation reserve. The mine area was characterised by high external gamma levels, alpha-radioactive dust and significant levels of radon daughters in prevailing air. It is known that the rates of radioactivity in the area were much higher after mining than before. Based on these post-mining radiation levels, it had been estimated that annual doses of some individuals were about 5 millisieverts (mSv), the Australian limit for public exposure up until the late 1980s. As the new limit was about to be dropped to 1 mSv per year, rehabilitation was required. As a result, a supplementary $1.8 million program to improve Rum Jungle Creek South waste dumps was undertaken in 1990.

In 2003, a government survey of the tailings piles at Rum Jungle found that capping which was supposed to help contain radioactive waste for at least 100 years had failed in less than 20 years. The Territory and Federal Governments continued to argue over responsibility for funding rehabilitation.

In November 2010, the Rum Jungle South Recreation Reserve was closed due to low-level radiation in the area. The Department of Resources said tests at the waste rock pile at the reserve detected low-level radiation. It advised the local council to shut down the reserve as a precautionary measure. The Environmental Research Institute of the Supervising Scientist was tasked with carrying out a comprehensive assessment of the site. (Click here and here for more information.)

On 7 October 2009, the Commonwealth and Northern Territory Governments entered into a four-year $7.05 million National Partnership Agreement on the management of the former Rum Jungle Mine site. The purpose is to undertake various studies to inform the development of an updated rehabilitation strategy, which may then lead to future rehabilitation works under new arrangements.

In other words, the saga of environmental pollution at Rum Jungle continues, 41 years (and counting) after the closure of the mine in 1971.

RECENT MINING NEAR RUM JUNGLE

In the 2000s, Compass Resources pursued plans to mine copper, cobalt, nickel, lead and silver near Rum Jungle (and near the town of Batchelor). Compass acknowledged that it was also interested in mining uranium at the nearby Rum Jungle site, over which it held a lease, including the Mount Fitch resource estimated at 4050 tonnes U3O8. Compass commissioned the Browns Oxide mine − about 1 km west of the former Rum Jungle complex − to mine cobalt, nickel and copper mining. The first shipment of copper left the mine in October 2008. But costs had blown out, cash had run out, the company was placed under administration in January 2009 and the Browns Oxide mine was put under care and maintenance (see Friends of Compass Resources and The Australian.) In May 2009, a decision was made to liquidate Compass Mining and place Compass Resources under a Deed of Company Arrangement.

Chinese company HNC (Australia) Resources proposed to develop the Area 55 Oxide Project to mine copper, cobalt and nickel and to process it at the nearby Browns Oxide plant. HNC also had an interest in restarting mining at Browns Oxide (it previously had a Joint Venture agreement with Compass). Those plans hit hurdles but may yet be revived.

UPDATES:

Radiation hot spots at NT lake

Northern Territory News, 3 December 2012, by Alison Bevege

http://aap.newscentre.com.au/acf/121204/library/nuclear_issues/30004975.html

RADIATION hot spots many times higher than background levels were found at a popular recreational lake downstream from one of Australia’s worst polluting mines yesterday.

Monash University senior environmental engineering lecturer Gavin Mudd found radiation levels as high as four microsieverts in spots around the carpark and barbecue areas of Rum Jungle Lake near Batchelor, 100km south of Darwin.

School children come on excursions to the lake for canoeing and kayaking while locals use it for swimming and relaxing.

Dr Mudd said the background radiation level was 0.1 microsievert. A conventional chest X-ray is 20 microsieverts according to the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. Dr Mudd, who was testing the site with a geiger counter for the Environment Centre NT, said there was no immediate risk to the public but the site might need warning signs. “It wouldn’t be exposing the public to the limits in a couple of hours … but it is significant,” he said.

The lake was closed for 18 months as a precaution but re-opened in September.

Batchelor resident Bruce Jones, 70, often swims in the lake and said he was not worried. “We’ve got a letter saying it’s all OK out here,” he said. “They’ve opened it to swimming and the kids are coming from all the schools.”

Uranium was mined by the Federal Government at Rum Jungle from 1952 until 1971.

It did not clean up the site until 1983, but the clay covers put on the tailings heaps failed soon after being installed. Heavy metals and uranium have been leaking out ever since.

In September, the NT Government called for tenders for a new cover design to contain leaking.

———–

Clean-up not on federal agenda

NT News, 11 Dec 2012

THE Federal Government has refused to commit to fixing radiation pollution it left in the Northern Territory after mining uranium at Rum Jungle. Radiation levels are so high that camping has been banned at the nearby Rum Jungle recreational lake for public health reasons. The lake is popular with school excursions and is considered safe for day trips, including kayaking and swimming.

The Federal Government began mining uranium in 1953 near Batchelor, 100km south of Darwin, for use by the UK and the UK in nuclear weapons and for research. Mining ceased in 1971, leaving one of the worst polluting legacy mines in the Territory. In the 1980s efforts made to clean up the site failed.

A four-year study of the site is due to end in June. But the Federal Government has refused to commit to fixing the site once the study is complete. Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson refused to commit to spending the estimated $100 million needed to clean up the site when questioned by the NT News.

Shadow Environment Minister Greg Hunt also refused to commit to action should the Coalition be voted in at the next election. “We will await the outcome of that report before making a commitment,” Mr Hunt said.

MORE INFORMATION:

• NT government info and photos: http://www.nt.gov.au/d/rumjungle/index.cfm?header=Rum%20Jungle%20Home
• NT government info (PDF): http://www.nt.gov.au/d/rumjungle/Content/documents/historic/Discovery_and_Exploration.pdf
• information and recent photos: http://mininglegacies.org/mines/northern-territory/rum-jungle
• SEA-US archive: http://web.archive.org/web/20060423175610/http://www.sea-us.org.au/oldmines/rumjungle.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rum_Jungle,_Northern_Territory
• Batchelor Museum (info and photos): http://batchelormuseum.org.au
• lots of photos: http://web.archive.org/web/20060430183833/http://www.sea-us.org.au/oldmines/rj2see.html
• lots of news articles from 2006-2010 about the resumption of mining near Rum Jungle: http://www.ntne.ws/articles/article.php?section=rumjungle
• Recreation reserve closed due to radiation, ABC, 12 November 2010, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-11-12/recreation-reserve-closed-due-to-radiation/2334918

Articles about pollution and rehabilitation:

• Mudd, G M & Patterson, J, 2010, ‘Continuing Pollution From the Rum Jungle U-Cu Project: A Critical Evaluation of Environmental Monitoring and Rehabilitation’. Environmental Pollution, 158 (5), pp 1252-1260. Available from Gavin.Mudd@monash.edu
• Taylor, G., Spain, A., Nefiodovas, A., Timms, G., Kuznetsov, V., Bennett, J. (2003), “Determination of the reasons for deterioration of the Rum Jungle waste rock cover”. Australian Centre for Mining Environmental Research, http://www.inap.com.au/public_downloads/Research_Projects/Rum_Jungle_Report.pdf
• Mudd, G M, 2000, Remediation of Uranium Mill Tailings Wastes in Australia : A Critical Review. Proc. “2000 Contaminated Sites Remediation Conference”, CSIRO Centre for Groundwater Studies, Melbourne, VIC, December 4-8, 2000, Vol. 2, pp 777-784, http://users.monash.edu.au/~gmudd/files/2000-ContSites-UMillTailings.pdf

[This webpage last updated September 2012.]

Queensland Mines mined the Nabarlek uranium deposit for four months in 1979. Milling of stockpiled ore commenced in 1980 and produced 10,858 tonnes of uranium oxide up to 1988 with sales to Japan, Finland, France, South Korea and the USA for civil power generation.

The average grade was 1.84% U3O8, 763,000 tonnes of ore were milled, and a total of 2.33 million tonnes of ore and waste rock were excavated.

There is ongoing uranium exploration in the Nabarlek region. In early 2008 Uranium Equities Limited bought Queensland Mines, thereby acquiring the Nabarlek lease, and has developed plans to further explore the lease. A new Mining Management Plan was submitted and an exploration authorisation granted on 28 May 2008.

Traditional Owners

Altman and Smith state in a detailed briefing paper: “All told, in the period 1979-93 approximately $14 million was paid to Aboriginal people in the West Arnhem region with respect to the QML [Nabarlek] mine and it now appears clear that few resources have been utilised for long-term investments that would allow the creation of an economic base for future generations.”

Jon Land wrote:

“Queensland Mines’ dealings with the Oenpelli people were deplorable. In June 1970, the company dug exploration holes without permission, desecrating the Green Ant sacred site. Repeated actions such as this prompted the solicitor representing the Oenpelli to write to the NT administrator in 1972, stating: “Our clients are most concerned that Queensland Mines Ltd has in the past shown a complete disregard for their traditions and way of life … and has shown no willingness to cooperate or even communicate with our clients.”

“Other than direct confrontation, the company “communicated” its intent to mine by attempting to buy off the traditional owners with offers of sums which rose from a paltry $5000 in 1970 to $3 million by February 1974. When these offers were refused, Queensland Mines launched a malicious media campaign.

“In a submission to the Ranger inquiry on uranium in August 1976, the Oenpelli Tribal Council told the commissioners that “If Oenpelli had the power to make the final decision, it would oppose mining”. Despite the lengthy and determined opposition of the Oenpelli, Queensland Mines was finally given approval to go ahead in 1978.”

Unions and ALP policy

In August 1980, the Darwin branch of the Waterside Workers Federation refused to load Nabarlek yellowcake. In March 1981, the Darwin branch of the Seamen’s Union of Australia voted unanimously against carrying yellowcake. A combined union picket to prevent the shipment of yellowcake from Darwin was initiated in October 1981 and lasted six weeks until the ACTU executive stepped in and argued for the bans to be lifted.

Jon Land wrote: “In a move designed to maintain some credibility in the eyes of the anti-uranium movement and prevent disgruntled members leaving the party, [Prime Minister Bob] Hawke announced that Labor would maintain its ban on the export of uranium to France. The policy, which had been adopted at the 1982 national conference, stated that the sale of uranium to France could only be contemplated when that government ceased all nuclear testing in the Pacific. This had a significant impact on operations at Nabarlek as France was the major purchaser of the uranium mined and processed there. … But within six weeks of the 1986 conference the policy was ditched, supposedly to meet the needs of the August budget. … With the restriction on sales of uranium to France lifted, Queensland Mines was able to sell its 2600-tonne stockpile by 1989 and the mine ceased. The company then attempted to have prospects it controlled outside the original Nabarlek lease included as part of the three mine policy. This was opposed by local Aborigines and denied by the federal ALP government.”

Corporate shenanigans

Mudd details the corporate shenanigans surrounding the Nabarlek mine. A few excerpts follow:

“It was not until August 12, 1971, that the new Queensland Mines board and the public learned that the reserves amounted to only 8,932 tons (8,103 tonnes U3O8), some of which was at 16 lb per short ton and some at 240 lb. This was only one-sixth of the amount stated as indicated reserves a year before. The news shocked financial circles, despite persistent rumours that the mine might be downgraded. …

“The Rae Committee concluded: ‘On each of these selling occasions Mr Hudson [Roy Hudson, chair and managing director of Queensland Mines] was privately aware of developments which widened the glaring discrepancy between the ascertained geological facts and state of confident belief in the market to which he sold the shares. Each of the selling transactions coincided with an advance in his personal understanding of the discrepancy. Mr Hudson’s explanation of the sales does not alter the grave impropriety of the share dealings. This is a case of ‘insider trading’ with a peculiarly objectionable twist. The person who made profits from his possession of the information that made a mockery of the market’s belief in his company’s shares was also one of the persons responsible for misleading that market for a period of nearly a year.'”

Environmental impacts

A few environmental low-lights from Nabarlek (see Mudd for more detail):

• 1980, July 22 and 26 − The pipeline returning water from the stockpile runoff pond to the mill ruptured along a weld seal. Less than 30,000 litres of water escaped.
• 1981, March 7 − Water flowed from the Restricted Release Zone (RRZ) after heavy cyclonic rain; radioactive material was released from the plant runoff pond into a nearby creek. The infringement wasn’t reported to the Office of the Supervising Scientist (OSS) or the NT government by the company, and only came to light four months afterward following media reports, though the environmental requirements demand immediate notification. When the company presented a report to OSS, it contained contradictions and insufficient information. OSS expressed concern over monitoring of water quality, concentrations of radioactive dust, and lack of response from Queensland Mines over plans for decommissioning, dewatering and covering the tailings, and rehabilitation at the end of the project.
• 1982 , April 1 − Two leaking joints were discovered on a pipeline between the Waste Rock Runoff Pond and Evaporation Pond No 2 and repaired immediately. The quantity of runoff water estimated to have leaked was 40,000 – 80,000 litres.
• 1983, March 4 − A small leak from a tailings line in the plant area was detected during routine surveillance and reported by the company. Less than 1,000 litres of tailings sprayed over the top of the retaining bund to a distance approximately three metres outside the RRZ.
• 1983, Nov 17 − A split in a pipe from a stockpile runoff pond to the mill resulted in less than 500 litres of liquid being sprayed over the bund. The pipe was replaced.
• 1984, March 27 − A small quantity of tailings in suspension (about 300 litres of liquor, 25% solid tails) sprayed from a pipeline outside the Nabarlek RRZ.
• 1987 − Tree death started in the area called the Forest Irrigation Area. Eventually the whole ten hectares of the irrigation area lost their trees.
• 1989, August 3 − A break occurred in a T-joint from the main irrigation plot 8. An estimated 10,000 litres of Evaporation Pond 2 water escaped the RRZ.

Rehabilitation

Nabarlek is said to be the only mine which has gone through the entire cycle of commercial mining, mine closure and rehabilitation, but it still requires ongoing monitoring, which is carried out by government and funded by taxpayer. There have been ongoing site contamination and lasting impacts on water quality. Problems include significantly elevated gamma radiation rates compared to pre-mining as well as failure to achieve the reductions in radon emanation predicted for rehabilitation (Mudd, 2008).

According to the Office of the Supervising Scientist: “The tailings, and the material from the evaporation ponds placed in the pit in October 1992, represent a source of solutes which will affect groundwater quality in this area for the long term. Conductivity, sulphate, and nitrate values are continuing to increase in bores affected by the pit, while pH is decreasing.”

The 1985-86 OSS Annual Report stated: “Disposal of uranium mill tailings in surface dams, no matter how well stabilised and protected, almost certainly involves the acceptance of eventual tailings release to the environment. While this risk may be reduced … it is unlikely that any containment structure could remain totally impregnable to the natural processes of slow erosion over periods comparable to several half-lives of the longest lived isotopes retained in the tailings.”

References and more information:

• Mudd, G.M., 2008, ‘Radon Releases From Australian Uranium Mining and Milling Projects: Assessing the UNSCEAR Approach’. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 99 (2), pp 288-315. Available from Gavin.Mudd@monash.edu
• http://web.archive.org/web/20060622040726/http://www.sea-us.org.au/oldmines/nabarlek.html
• Government information on Nabarlek rehabilitation: www.environment.gov.au/ssd/supervision/arr-mines/nabarlek.html
• www.world-nuclear.org/info/Australia_Mines/fmines.html
• ‘Nabarlek uranium mine’s hidden history’, Jon Land, 28 January 1998, http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/18564
• ‘Concern on mine clean-up’, Amanda Hodge, The Australian, 18 December 2003
• ‘The economic impact of mining moneys: the Nabarlek case, Western Arnhem Land’, Jon Altman and Diane Smith, Discussion Paper 63 / 1994, http://caepr.anu.edu.au/Publications/DP/1994DP63.php

Above and below: Nabarlek, 1995.

[This webpage last updated June 2012.]

The Radium Hill deposit was discovered in 1906 and mined for radium between 1906 and 1931 and for uranium between 1954 and 1961. In the early days it produced radium for the Curies in France. The ore concentrate was treated in New South Wales and Victoria to yield a few hundred milligrams of radium and several hundred tonnes of uranium by-product. Later, a plant at Dry Creek, near Adelaide, processed Radium Hill ore to extract radium. The radium produced was used for medical purposes and the uranium by-product was used as a bright yellow pigment in glass and ceramics.

By 1952, Radium Hill had been proved large enough to mine uranium. The underground mine was recommissioned in 1954 and operated by the South Australian Government to satisfy a cost-plus contract signed by the Commonwealth and SA Governments with the UK-USA Combined Development Agency for delivery of uranium oxide over seven years. The CDA was the agency responsible for obtaining uranium for the British and US nuclear weapons programs. Radium Hill was operated on land previously occupied by Aboriginal people, and its yellowcake was incorporated (along with Australia’s other source material) into nuclear weapons later tested on Aboriginal land and people.

A township to support 1100 people was built at Radium Hill, with water being piped from NSW, a railway spur constructed to connect Radium Hill with the Broken Hill–Port Pirie line, and a power transmission line constructed from Morgan.

Concentrate was railed 300 kilometres to a treatment plant at Port Pirie designed to produce 160 tonnes of uranium oxide per year and operated by the SA Department of Mines. The uranium mine operated from September 1954 to December 1961. The Port Pirie uranium treatment plant operated from 1956 to February 1962, producing 852 tonnes of U3O8.

Although the uranium grades at Radium Hill were moderate to low, the rare earths grade was exceptional, with values up to 7% rare earth oxides. A proposal was made public in the late 1980s to mine and extract the rare earths from the remnant tailings at Port Pirie, although the project was abandoned due to intense public opposition and known community health problems from the uranium tailings and lead-zinc smelting.

In 1982 the South Australian Health Commission and Adelaide University commenced a study of ex-miners at the Radium Hill mine (see Woodward, 1991; Woodward et al., 1991; Mudd, 2008a). In July 1986, the Commission issued a progress report. More lung cancers were attributable to the workforce than in the community at large, but the Commission could not decide whether these were due to radon exposure in the underground workings, or the heavy rate of smoking. Moreover “significant numbers of Radium Hill miners were immigrants, some of whom may have had uranium mining experience in high-exposure mines in other countries”.

The Radium Hill health study was finally published in 1991, nine years after its inception. It dismissed some of the complacent interim conclusions of 1986, and concluded that radiation may have contributed to premature deaths among the workforce. The Federal Industrial Relations Minister, Peter Cook, held out the possibility of compensation to 56 families of victims of Radium Hill.

Little remains today of the 1954-61 uranium-mining period or earlier radium extraction operations other than a number of foundations, infrastructure remnants, tailings impoundment and some waste rock and heavy media reject piles.

In late 1997, it was discovered that radioactive solid wastes from a Field Leaching Trial conducted at Beverley by Heathgate Resources were to be disposed of at the “Radium Hill Shallow-Ground Radioactive Waste Disposal Site”, operated by the SA Dept. of Mines and Energy. This was the first time it has become public knowledge that the old underground workings from the Radium Hill mine were a licensed repository for such wastes.

The SA government states that in 1981: “the site was also established as a repository for low-level radioactive waste materials, primarily to facilitate the clean-up of contaminated soil held in Thebarton in the Adelaide metropolitan area.”

A 2003 SA government audit of radioactive waste states: “There are approximately 400,000 tonnes of tailings that remain at Radium Hill, held in a rectangular pile consisting of two sections, each approximately 125 m square and 8 m high. The northern end of the tailings dam has been used intermittently as a repository for low level radioactive waste since April 1981, when the site was gazetted under the Crown Lands Act 1929 and placed under the care, control and management of the (then) Minister of Mines and Energy. The material placed in the repository between 1981 and 1998 includes contaminated soil and ore residues from the Australian Mineral Development Laboratories (AMDEL) (Thebarton), ore residues from AMDEL (Frewville), contaminated soils from a former radium plant at Dry Creek, and some contaminated equipment from test work conducted at the Honeymoon site in the early 1980s. The repository now contains approximately 200 m3 of material in 200 L and 50 L drums buried in the dam. … The repository has not been used since 1998. It is regularly inspected by officers of PIRSA for any damage to the clay cover, and remedial action is taken as appropriate. … The future intermittent disposal of radioactive waste at the Radium Hill repository is not recommended as the site is not engineered to a standard consistent with current internationally accepted practice.”

The 2003 SA government audit also states: “Several piles of material, possibly crushed waste rock or rejects from the former heavy media separation plant, also remain on site.”

As of May 2012, it appears that a risk assessment process conducted by the SA government is ongoing.

Lottermoser and Ashley (2006) write:  “Rehabilitation was limited to removal of mine facilities, sealing of underground workings and capping of selected waste repositories. In 2002, gamma-ray data and samples of tailings, uncrushed and crushed waste rock, stream sediment, topsoil and vegetation were collected to assist in examining the current environmental status of the mine site. The data indicate that capping of tailings storage facilities did not ensure the long-term containment of the low-level radioactive wastes due to the erosion of sides of the impoundments. Moreover, wind erosion of waste fines (phyllosilicates, ore minerals) from various, physically unstable waste repositories has caused increasing radiochemical (from a background dose of 35 – 70 nSv/h to max. 0.94 mSv/h) and geochemical (Ce, Cr, La, Lu, Rb, Sc, Th, U, V, Y, Yb) impacts on local soils. Plants (saltbush, pepper tree) growing on waste dumps display evidence of biological uptake of lithophile elements, with values being up to 1 – 2 orders of magnitude above values for plants of the same species at background sites.”

Lottermoser and Ashley conclude: “The Radium Hill uranium mine in South Australia ceased operations in 1961 and underwent rehabilitation in the 1980s. The mine area now consists of numerous waste rock dumps, several tailings storage facilities and numerous relicts and foundations of buildings and other structures. The waste dumps are prone to physical erosion involving wind and seasonal rain. Physical dispersion of mineralised particles from waste rock dumps and tailings repositories, has led to local enrichment of lithophile elements (Ce, Cr, La, Lu, Rb, Sc, Th, U, V, Y, Yb) in adjacent soils. Plants (pepper tree, saltbush), growing on contaminated soil, display enhanced uptake of lithophile elements. The enrichment in common species implies that there is potential for transfer of U into grazing animals and their bioaccumulation. Additional capping and landform design of the crushed waste and tailings repositories are required in order to minimise erosion and impacts on surrounding soils and sediments.”

References and more information:

• Radium Hill Historical Association (information and photos): www.radiumhill.org
• http://web.archive.org/web/20060624103929/http://www.sea-us.org.au/oldmines/radiumhill.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Hill
• SA government: www.pir.sa.gov.au/minerals/mines__and__developing_projects/former_mines/radium_hill_mine
• McLeary, M., 2004. Radium Hill Uranium Mine & Low-Level Radioactive Waste Repository: Management Plan Phase 1 – Preliminary Investigation. PIRSA Report Book 2004/09
• Lottermoser, B.G. and Ashley, P.M., 2006, ‘Physical dispersion of radioactive mine waste at the rehabilitated Radium Hill uranium mine site, South Australia’, Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 53:3, 485 – 499, http://eprints.jcu.edu.au/1598
• Mudd, Gavin M., 2005, ‘The Legacy of Early Uranium Efforts in Australia, 1906–1945: From Radium Hill to the Atomic Bomb and Today’, Historical Records of Australian Science, 16 (2), pp 169-198, www.publish.csiro.au/nid/108.htm, available from Gavin.Mudd@monash.edu
• Mudd, G.M., 2008, Comment on “Radium Hill : Bindi to Boom Town”, by Kevin R. Kakoschke. Journal of Australasian Mining History, vol. 5, September 2007, pp. 135-149. Journal of Australasian Mining History, 6, pp 176-181. Available from Gavin.Mudd@monash.edu
• Mudd, G.M.,, 2008, ‘Radon Releases From Australian Uranium Mining and Milling Projects: Assessing the UNSCEAR Approach’. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 99 (2), pp 288-315. Available from Gavin.Mudd@monash.edu
• Mudd, G.M., 2008a, Radon Sources & Impacts: A Review of Mining and Non-Mining Issues. Reviews in Environmental Science and Biotechnology, 7 (4), pp 325-353. Available from Gavin.Mudd@monash.edu
• Woodward, A., 1991, ‘The Effects of Uranium Mining on Health’, Search, 22 (4), pp 131-133.
• Woodward, A., Roder, D., McMichael, A.J., Crouch, P. & Mylvaganam, A., 1991, ‘Radon Daughter Exposures at the Radium Hill Uranium Mine and Lung Cancer Rates Among Former Workers, 1952-87’. Cancer Causes & Control, 2, pp 213-220.

[This webpage last updated August 2012.]

More than 5,000 tonnes of tailings from the Yeelirrie uranium deposit, near Wiluna, were buried in the Hannan area of Kalgoorlie after BHP stopped testing processing ore there in the 1980s. In 2012, damage to a security gate allowed children to enter the site on dirt bikes. BHP Billiton said it would improve security.

More information:

• http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/03/03/2835501.htm?site=goldfields
• http://kalgoorlie.igwn.com.au/index.php/news/prime-news/children-accessing-old-uranium-site,306471

50 people attended an anti-uranium protest in Kalgoorlie in 2010.

[This webpage last updated May 2012.]

The Mary Kathleen open-cut uranium mine operated from 1958-63 and again from 1976-82. About 9,200,000 tonnes of ore were processed yielding a total of just under 8,900 tonnes U3O8.

The deposit was discovered in July 1954 by prospectors from nearby Mount Isa, soon after the discovery of the nearby Skal deposit sent hundreds of prospectors madly roaming the Mt Isa and Clonclurry countryside.

A sales contract with the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority was signed in 1956. Mining commenced at the end of 1956 and the treatment plant was commissioned in June 1958. The project was developed by Mary Kathleen Uranium Ltd (MKU) at a cost of $24 million.

Above: Crushed ore conveyor, second period of operation, 1976-82.

Above: Prime Minister Robert Menzies with miners.

Over the years various attempts were made to find markets for the rare earths as a co-product, to no avail.

The mine was closed for more than a decade. New contracts with utilities in Japan, Germany and USA for 4,740 tonnes of uranium oxide were negotiated early in the 1970s and recommissioning began in 1974. The Commonwealth Government, through the Australian Atomic Energy Commission, underwrote this, thereby obtaining a 42% holding in the company. Conzinc Riotinto of Australia Limited, a successor of Rio Tinto Mining, held 51%, and the public 7%.

A 2009 article in the Courier Mail states: “Anti-uranium activists from Townsville held up the first, secret rail shipment of 130 tonnes of U308 from the revived mine for an hour [in 1976], the Australian Council of Trade Unions called for a ban on exports, and the Seamen’s Union organised a blockade. Not only that, the mine’s owners were forced to pay $34 million compensation to Westinghouse, which used Australian uranium in its power plants, after the Friends of the Earth green group was handed documents showing evidence of a uranium cartel. But the most extraordinary revelation came in 1980, when two tonnes of yellowcake was stolen and later found in Sydney. The company downplayed the incident, likening it to an employee stealing office stationery!”

In the mid-1970s documents were leaked to Friends of the Earth revealing:

• shoddy environmental practices at Mary Kathleen;
• close surveillance of environmental organisations;
• the close relationship between the most senior ranking Australian trade union official, ACTU President Bob Hawke, and the chairman of Conzinc Riotinto Australia (CRA), Sir Roderick Carnegie; and
• the complicity of Australian government officials in providing advice to mining companies on how to avoid important nuclear non-proliferation safeguards treaties to sell uranium to places like Taiwan (which was not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) via “Toll Processing” in the US.

At the end of 1982 the mine was depleted and finally closed down after 4,802 tonnes of uranium oxide concentrate had been produced in its second phase of operation.

One million litres of radioactive liquid were deliberately released in February 1984 from the mines evaporation ponds during an unexpectedly wet wet season.

Mary Kathleen then became the site of Australia’s first major rehabilitation project of a uranium mine, which was completed at the end of 1985 at a cost of $19 million. The mining company covered the tailings with crushed rock instead of clay in order to save millions of dollars. The seepage of radioactive radium and thorium and toxic elements from the tailings has been much greater than if clay had been used as a relatively impermeable barrier. There is ongoing low-level uptake of heavy metals and radionuclides into vegetation.

Update:

Qld Government to probe Mary Kathleen uranium site

Kate Stephens and Virginia Tapp, 6 December 2012, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-06/qld-government-to-probe-mary-kathleen-uranium-site/4412282

The State Government says it will begin investigating ways to unlock $4 billion worth of mineral resources at the former Mary Kathleen uranium mine site in north-west Queensland. Queensland Natural Resources and Mines Minister Andrew Cripps says the State Government is particularly interested in the site as a potential hot spot for developing rare earth.

Mr Cripps says there are millions of tonnes of ore tailings at the site, which is in the Selwyn Range between Mount Isa and Cloncurry, making it one of the largest deposits of rare earth in Australia. He says no companies are involved with the process at this stage.

More information:

• Brendan O’Malley, 10 August 2009, ‘Mary K reigned in the days before no nukes were good nukes’, http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/features/mary-k-reigned-before-no-nukes-were-good-nukes/story-e6freoro-1225759866462
• B. G. Lottermoser, P. M. Ashley, M. T. Costelloe, 2005, ‘Contaminant dispersion at the rehabilitated Mary Kathleen uranium mine, Australia’, Environ Geol (2005) 48: 748–761, http://www.springerlink.com/index/k57703154u187353.pdf
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Kathleen,_Queensland
• http://web.archive.org/web/20060516154044/http://www.sea-us.org.au/oldmines/marykathleen.html
• Collection of photos posted at http://web.archive.org/web/20060722082707/http://www.sea-us.org.au/oldmines/maryk-hmmm.html

Above: Aerial view of the tailings dam and evaporation pond, 1976-82.

Above: The abandoned open pit at Mary Kathleen, 2009.

Below: video about uranium mining in Queensland:

[This webpage last updated in May 2012.]

From 1911 to 1915, a small amount of uranium ore from Radium Hill in South Australia was chemically processed at Hunter’s Hill, New South Wales, to extract the valuable radium. Radium is a radioactive decay product from uranium, and has a high radioactive intensity due to its half life of 1601 years. At the time, radium was worth some 300,000 pounds per ounce − compare to gold which was only 4 pounds per ounce. So it is easy to understand why so much effort was spent in trying to extract an element which is only found at concentrations of milligrams per tonne. Although records are incomplete, it is estimated that some 2,000 tonnes of uranium ore was transported from Radium Hill to Hunters Hill and no more than 1-2 grams of radium was produced, along with several tonnes of uranium oxide as a by-product.

After abandonment in 1915, the adjacent land was converted to a tin smelter, which operated until 1964. At this time, the area was considered for residential housing and an assessment by the Australian Atomic Energy Commission (AAEC, now ANSTO) concluded this was safe with respect to radiation risks. In the late 1970s, however, with greater public knowledge of the science behind radiation exposure, major concerns were raised about radiation risks at the site − surveys showed the obvious presence of uranium tailings from the radium processing.

The NSW Government bought several houses, demolished those on 7 and 9 Nelson Parade, but failed to undertake a complete site remediation. A NSW Upper House Inquiry in 2008 covered the history and nature of the site in detail, but there was still no public plan for remediation. In late 2011, the NSW Government began a process towards remediation, but that process has been the subject of controversy and opposition, particularly around a proposed site for storage of radioactive waste from Hunters Hill. It can be expected that of the order of 2,000 tonnes of radioactive waste would be generated by any site clean-up, with a similar radioactivity to tailings at the Ranger uranium mine.

Children and adults alike have been exposed to radiation from the contaminated Hunters Hill site and many are understandably angry about the decades of deceit and obfuscation. The NSW Health Commission covered up the dangers of Hunters Hill. An internal memo in 1977 told staff to “stall and be non-committal” when responding to queries. Residents were told there was “no logical reason” to carry out radiation or health tests even though the NSW government knew that there were compelling reasons to do so. A senior public servant told officials that radiation testing should continue “provided that in so doing we do not conspicuously draw attention to ourselves and we do not discuss the matter with other persons, such as the council, until further advised”.

Update:

Uranium smelter’s legacy moves on

Ben Cubby, 16 December 2012, http://www.smh.com.au/environment/uranium-smelters-legacy-moves-on-20121215-2bgb3.html

THE controversial clean-up of a radioactive site in Hunters Hill is set to begin early next year, with any hazardous waste to be moved from the harbourside suburb to Lidcombe, the NSW government says. The contaminated properties in Nelson Parade – once the site of a uranium smelter – have been a thorn in the side of residents and governments for nearly a century.

After years of denials from successive governments about the extent of the contamination, the clean-up will now be extended to include suspected radioactive hot spots in neighbouring backyards and at the harbour foreshore.

The Premier, Barry O’Farrell, all but ruled out dumping the contaminated dirt at a Kemps Creek waste facility in western Sydney last year, in the face of protests from Penrith residents and councillors.

But the new plan involves reclassifying most of the contaminated earth as ”restricted solid waste”, allowing it to be trucked to Kemps Creek. Any material that is shown to be dangerously radioactive will be taken to a secure storage facility in Lidcombe, operated by the Office of Environment and Heritage.

More information:

• NSW Upper House Inquiry: http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/Prod/parlment/committee.nsf/0/8C6EFA4FA782EDC5CA25744B0007DA3B
• Current projects: Hunters Hill, http://www.lpma.nsw.gov.au/spa/our_business/current_projects
• Lidcombe residents gather in force to protest nuclear waste plans, http://parramatta-advertiser.whereilive.com.au/news/story/lidcombe-residents-gather-in-force-to-protest-nuclear-waste-plans
• Radioactive homes need rules, 05 October 2009, http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20090510-19932.html
• Uranium tests kept secret, inquiry hears, 4 July 2008, http://ntne.ws/articles/article.php?id=3227
• Owners of uranium-laced land to sue Government, 11 December 2008, http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/owners-of-uraniumlaced-land-to-sue-government/2008/12/10/1228584929906.html
• Records raise fears over smelter site’s toxic legacy, February 26, 2008, http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/records-raise-fears-over-smelter-sites-toxic-legacy/2008/02/25/1203788248562.html
• If asked about radiation, stall: official tactic, 3 March 2008, http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/if-asked-about-radiation-stall-official-tactic/2008/03/02/1204402275131.html
• Luxury home is too radioactive to live in, June 25, 2008, http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/luxury-home-is-too-radioactive-to-live-in/2008/06/24/1214073246944.html
• Home owners plan to sue after tests find radiation hot spots, April 19, 2008, http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/home-owners-plan-to-sue-after-tests-find-radiation-hot-spots/2008/04/18/1208025479619.html
• Nuclear dump: family seeks answers on deaths, April 12, 2008, http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/04/11/1207856832354.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
• Uranium site to be cleansed, March 27, 2009, http://www.smh.com.au/environment/uranium-site-to-be-cleansed-20090326-9cey.html

The former Koongarra Project Area (KPA) lies within the traditional lands of the Djok clan and is a region of approximately 12,000 hectares. Until February 2013 Koongarra was excluded from the World Heritage Listed Kakadu National Park, which completely surrounds the area. The region is unique, magnificent and important in traditional storylines that include the Rainbow Serpent and Lightning Man. It is also home to an estimated 15,000 tonnes of high grade uranium which the French nuclear and mining giant Areva has been trying to access and develop for several decades.

Jeffrey Lee, Senior Traditional Owner of the Djok clan, speaks for Koongarra. Mr Lee has long resisted Areva’s promises of wealth and remained firm in his commitment to care for the land. In 2010 Jeffrey Lee asked the Federal Government to protect Koongarra by including it within Kakadu, stating at the time: “When you dig a hole in that country you are killing me. I don’t worry about money at all.” The Government promised to honour his wishes and three years later, in February 2013, it did.

When Koongarra’s protection was announced, Jeffrey Lee acknowledged the inspiration he has drawn from the Mirarr’s struggle: “I also want to thank the Mirarr people and especially the senior traditional owner, Yvonne Margarula, and the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation. They have stood by me and showed me that Aboriginal people can say no.”

Protection of Koongarra is a long overdue recognition of Jeffrey Lee’s vision and tenacity and a powerful and lasting victory for both Aboriginal and environmental rights.

read more Koongarra: From uranium project to National Park (download PDF)

Below: Jeffrey Lee speaking in 2008

More information:

• www.world-nuclear.org/info/Australia_Mines/pmines.html#koongarra
  

[This webpage last updated November 2014.]

In February 1998, the federal Coalition government announced its intention to build a national radioactive waste dump in central South Australia. The Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta – a senior Aboriginal women’s council – played a leading role in the campaign against the dump, as did the Kokatha and Barngala Traditional Owners. Many of the Kungkas suffered the effects of the British nuclear testing program in the 1950s.

Aboriginal people were coerced into signing clearances for test drilling of short-listed sites for the proposed dump. The federal government made it clear that if clearances for test drilling were not granted by Aboriginal groups, drilling would take place anyway.

In 2002, the federal government tried to buy off Aboriginal opposition to the dump. Three Native Title claimant groups – the Kokatha, Kuyani and Barngala – were offered $90,000 to surrender their Native Title rights, but only on the condition that all three groups agreed. The Kokatha and Barngala refused, so the government’s ploy failed.

The proposed dump generated such controversy in South Australia that the federal government secured the services of a public relations company. Correspondence between the company and the government was released under Freedom of Information laws. In one exchange, a government official asks the PR company to remove sand-dunes from a photo selected to adorn a brochure. The explanation provided by the government official was that: “Dunes are a sensitive area with respect to Aboriginal Heritage”. The sand-dunes were removed from the photo, only for the government official to ask if the horizon could be straightened up as well.

On July 7, 2003, the federal government used the Lands Acquisition Act 1989 to seize land for the dump. Native Title rights and interests were annulled. This took place with no forewarning and no consultation with Aboriginal people.

In July 2004, the federal government abandoned the plan to build a radioactive dump in SA. The decision reflected the strength and persistence of the campaign against the dump. The victory was also helped by the ruling of the full bench of the Federal Court in June 2004 that the government had illegally used the urgency provision of the Land Acquisition Act.

The Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta wrote in an open letter: “People said that you can’t win against the Government. Just a few women. We just kept talking and telling them to get their ears out of their pockets and listen. We never said we were going to give up. Government has big money to buy their way out but we never gave up.”

More information:

• Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta, Irati Wanti campaign http://web.archive.org/web/20080718193150/www.iratiwanti.org/home.php3
• Jim Green website: http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/30410/20090218-0153/www.geocities.com/jimgreen3/index.html#waste
• ARPANSA http://web.archive.org/web/20040610143043/http://www.arpansa.gov.au/reposit/nrwr.htm
• Federal Government:
  • http://web.archive.org/web/20080719051744/http://www.radioactivewaste.gov.au/publications/former_projects.htm
  • www.ret.gov.au/RESOURCES/RADIOACTIVE_WASTE/WASTE_MGT_IN_AUST/Pages/RadioactiveWasteManagementinAustralia.aspx

[This webpage last updated February 2012]