Justin Tutty, Darwin
If Compass Resources gets its way in the Rum Jungle region, the site of the Northern Territory's first and dirtiest uranium mine, the future of the NT town of Batchelor looks bleak. Rum Jungle is very close to Browns Cut where Compass Resources is seeking approval to mine an oxide deposit. But this is only its short-term plan: down the track, it also wants to mine uranium at the same site.
Despite the radioactive contamination never having been cleaned up at the Rum Jungle site, Compass Resources wants approval to mine for oxides.
Ever since the federal government opened the uranium mine in 1953, radioactive waste has been a problem at Rum Jungle. For nearly 30 years, contaminated mine water collected in the dry season, only to wash into the East Finnis River in the wet.
The mine was abandoned in 1971 and it wasn't until 1983 that the Commonwealth government addressed some of the major contamination sources. In 1991, more work was done to reduce pollution at Rum Jungle Creek South which had become a popular crocodile free lake. But despite these clean-up attempts, contamination sources have yet to be adequately contained.
Compass Resources are currently seeking approval to mine the oxide deposit at Browns Cut immediately adjacent to the old lease. The project would generate considerable pollution, including radioactive waste in the form of tailings. Compass plan for contaminated water to overflow into the East Finnis River during the wet season, which will compound the pollution problems at Rum Jungle.
Compass admit that this is just the first stage of their plan for the region in which the initial four-year oxide project would expand into a major dig for sulphide deposits below. Beyond this, the company wants to mine the significant uranium reserves they have identified.
Compass have told investors that infrastructure from the Brown Cut projects will be re-deployed to a nearby uranium mine.
Five years ago, an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) by Compass for a polymetal mine at Rum Jungle was rejected. Last year Compass came back with a much smaller proposal, but assuring shareholders that once approved it will grow to fit its initial plans.
But these plans hit another hurdle last March. The NT
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that the Public Environment Report on the Browns oxide proposal deficient and demanded Compass supply more information about the project's impacts on local water supplies and usage.
This vindicates the concerns of many local landholders, residents and environment groups who protested to the EPA about the Compass proposal.
The most common concerns related to the impact of the Browns oxide proposal and its anticipated expansion into a major sulphide project on local water values including: the impact of the oxide proposal on local groundwater users; the anticipated impact of the expanded sulphide proposal on the Darwin River catchment; discharges from the mine site on
downstream water quality in the East Finnis River; the mobilisation of contaminated groundwater from the old uranium mines; and the management and monitoring of surface water run-off.
Radioactive wastes
The East Finnis River is still contaminated from the old Rum Jungle uranium mine: waste piles on the site continue to leach acid water containing heavy metals including uranium, into the river. Compass Resources promise that the water they plan to dump into the river will be no worse than what's already there. Opponents say that's not good enough.
They say that the Compass proposal to mine the oxide deposit at Brown's Cut will lead to a lowering of the ground water, pollution of the aquifer and the degradation of the immediate region's diverse flora and fauna including a number of endangered species. Compass promise to monitor bores around Batchelor to measure to what extent the volumes of
groundwater they intend to pump into the river will impact on local water values.
Perhaps the most contentious ecological hazard presented by the Browns' oxide proposal is that of radioactive wastes. While Compass has sought to reassure locals that Browns will not be a uranium mine, the ore includes significant (though not commercially viable) levels of uranium.
Mining operations would mobilise and disperse this uranium into the local environment.
The need to address the radioactive tailings, waste liquors and airborne emissions anticipated from the project has prompted a report by ANSTO, the federal government's nuclear science body, which identified known levels of radioactivity, outlined operational scenarios which could lead to an adverse environmental impact from radioactive pollution, and warned that current regulations may be insufficient for ensuring
environmental protection.
Compass has confirmed that if approval is granted for the oxide mine, it plans to immediately seek permission to mine the sulphide deposits below.
The Browns sulphide project covers a greater footprint, extending into the boundaries of the old uranium mine. Whereas the oxide project would produce 3.9 mega mT (mega tonne)
of ore over four years, the sulphide deposit below contains ten times as much ore, and could take more than 20 years to mine.
In 2001, Compass failed to get approval to develop a combined
oxide-sulphide project at Browns Cut. A major obstacle was that this larger project was recognised as a "nuclear action" under federal environment protection law. This larger deposit involves much larger volumes of radioactive waste.
However, radioactive waste is not the only environmental issue that will be magnified if Compass moves from the oxide to the sulphide deposit.
While the company claims that impacts of water use by the Browns oxide project won't extend beyond the Rum Jungle region, this confidence can't stand up to the larger volumes of groundwater that would be consumed by the sulphide project.
This second stage of mining operations proposed for Browns would have a much larger impact on local ground water, and for a much longer period. This could result in significant environmental problems, including polluting the nearby Darwin River Dam which supplies drinking water for half the NT population.
Unfortunately, the full extent of this, and other impacts of the sulphide project, can only be guessed at. So far the company has been allowed to pursue the oxide project without divulging important details, nor their full plan.
New uranium mines
While Compass have publicised plans for the Browns cut oxide project to seamlessly flow into a major sulphide mine, it has been less candid about the potential for mining uranium on their tenements around Rum Jungle. But communications with shareholders have been more forthcoming.
Last year, Compass announced uranium exploration data around Batchelor, reporting "the excellent uranium potential of the region, with the identification of a number of high potential prospects".
The Compass Resources Board noted in their September 2005 quarterly report that "the SX plant and tankage purchased would be equally suitable for future uranium processing". This led Martin Place Securities to conclude that Compass "aims to fast track a 4 Mt pa low cost uranium operation using common infrastructure from the proposed Browns oxide project".
All indications are that the Browns oxide proposal is merely a stepping stone in Compass' ambitions towards uranium mining. So far, the company has identified eight "highly encouraging" uranium prospects in the Batchelor region.
Given widespread concerns about new radioactive and heavy metal mining wastes being generated at Browns Cut, ANSTO has suggested that the Compass project could offer the best chance for cleaning up the mess left by the old mine.
ANSTO is best known as the federal body that wants to build a national nuclear waste dump somewhere in the NT. But it was ANSTO, in its former guise as the Atomic Energy Commission, which controlled the Rum Jungle uranium mine.
Now it's suggesting we take a gamble on Compass going all the way with their plans in the hope that when, or if, it cleans up, the place will be better than before it started! With this proposal the Commonwealth government, responsible for resolving the problems at Rum Jungle, is seeking to wash its hands of the mess.
The Environment Centre of the Northern Territory (ECNT) has dismissed ANSTO's cynical stance, insisting that Batchelor doesn't need another polluting mine before the region is given the care it needs. "Rum Jungle has already suffered too much at the hands of the mining industry and irresponsible governments", said Emma King, uranium campaigner
with ECNT. "We must prioritise the full rehabilitation of the Rum Jungle region ahead of any other proposal."
[Justin Tutty is a member of Darwin's No Waste Alliance
From Green Left Weekly, May 3, 2006.
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