Rum Jungle, Northern Territory
Encyclopedia
The Rum Jungle uranium deposit in the Northern Territory
, Australia
was found in 1949. It is 65 kilometres south of Darwin
on the East Finniss River.
under a contract which ran from 1953 to 1962. Rum Jungle was then the largest construction in the Northern Territory. The Government, through the Australian Atomic Energy Commission
, was responsible for the mine, although management of it was on a contract basis by Territory Enterprises Pty Limited, a subsidiary of the Rio Tinto Group
. A town was built at Batchelor
to accommodate the mining personnel, 8 km south of the mine.
, now known as Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO)
) decided not to rehabilitate the mine site. The mining company Conzinc (now part of the Rio Tinto Group, who own Energy Resources of Australia (ERA)
, operators of the Ranger Uranium Mine
in Kakadu National Park
) have consistently denied any responsibility for rehabilitation. This led to the mine becoming one of Australia's worst polluter owing to oxidation of sulphides by bacteria and the subsequent release of acid
and metals into the East Finniss River. The 1500 mm annual rainfall coupled with the pyritic mineralisation in the area created ideal conditions for such oxidation.
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 to remove heavy metals and neutralise the tailings.
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 water body in the Darwin region not infested with crocodiles, the site quickly became very popular with locals and Darwin residents as a recreation reserve. After mining, the area suffered elevated external gamma levels, alpha-radioactive dust and significant levels of radon daughters in prevailing air. These levels were so high that in the late 80s it was finally admitted that something had to be done. Radiation protection standards were being revised, so that the levels of pollution would now be officially recognised as unsafe for human health. As a result, a supplementary $1.8 million program to improve Rum Jungle Creek South waste dumps was undertaken in 1990.
One of the main environmental impacts of uranium mining is the creation of large volumes of radioactive mine waste (tailings) which are left behind on the site. The major radioactive component of these tailings is Uranium-238, an isotope with a halflife of 4.46 billion years. In 2003, a government survey of the tailings piles at Rum Jungle found that capping which was supposed to help contain this radioactive waste for at least 100 years, had failed in less than 20 years.
The Territory and Federal Governments continue to argue over responsibility for funding rehabilitation on the polluted East Finniss River
Contamination of local groundwater has yet to be addressed.
lodged a Referral under the EPBC Act with Environment Australia (which is now DEH). That document referred to the proposed development of a large-scale mining project, the Browns Polymetallic Project, that would produce lead
, cobalt
, copper
, nickel
and silver
over a project life of at least 15 years. As indicated in the 2001 Referral, Compass considered that the Browns Polymetallic Project was a ‘nuclear action’ under the EPBC Act, on the basis that the project could be considered to include rehabilitating a facility or area in which mining or milling of uranium ore has previously been undertaken.
Compass suspended its work on the polymetallic proposal in 2002 when low metal prices caused the withdrawal of Compass’s financial partner (Doe Run).
In 2005, Compass lodged an application for a much smaller project focussing on cobalt, nickel and copper mining. Because this project, the Brown's Oxide Project is much smaller than the polymetallic project proposed previously, Compass is in a position to progress it on its own.
The Northern Territory Government
has completed assessing this project and Ms Marion Scrymgour
MLA, Minister for Natural Resources, Environment and Heritage in the Northern Territory Government has advised that she has concluded that the Browns Oxide Project as proposed in the Public Environmental Report and subsequent documents "can be managed without unacceptable environmental impacts"
The Hon. Kon Vatskalis
MLA Minister for Mines and Energy announced this approval as "good news" during question time in the Northern Territory Parliament on 4 May 2006. To ensure the environment is managed properly, this approval and its recommendations is subject to final review by the Commonwealth Government
under a bilateral agreement between the Northern Territory Government and the Commonwealth of Australia.
Pending final Commonwealth approval, the project is set to be in production by early 2007.
While the project is located near the old Rum Jungle mine, the Browns Oxide Project is targeting copper cobalt and nickel—not uranium. Nonetheless, Compass makes no secret that at some future point it would be interested in mining uranium at the nearby Rum Jungle site (over which it holds a lease). Any proposal to mine uranium would require a totally new application and environmental assessment as a separate project.
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
was found in 1949. It is 65 kilometres south of Darwin
Darwin, Northern Territory
Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...
on the East Finniss River.
Original uranium mine
In 1952 the Australian Government funded the setting up of a mine and treatment plant to provide uranium oxide concentrate to the UK-US Combined Development AgencyCombined Development Agency
The Combined Development Agency was a defense purchasing authority established in 1948 by the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom...
under a contract which ran from 1953 to 1962. Rum Jungle was then the largest construction in the Northern Territory. The Government, through the Australian Atomic Energy Commission
Australian Atomic Energy Commission
The Australian Atomic Energy Commission was a statutory body of the Australian government.It was established in 1952, replacing the Atomic Energy Policy Committee. In 1981 parts of the Commission were split off to become part of CSIRO, the remainder continuing until 1987, when it was replaced by...
, was responsible for the mine, although management of it was on a contract basis by Territory Enterprises Pty Limited, a subsidiary of the Rio Tinto Group
Rio Tinto Group
The Rio Tinto Group is a diversified, British-Australian, multinational mining and resources group with headquarters in London and Melbourne. The company was founded in 1873, when a multinational consortium of investors purchased a mine complex on the Rio Tinto river, in Huelva, Spain from the...
. A town was built at Batchelor
Batchelor, Northern Territory
Batchelor is a town in the Northern Territory of Australia. The town is located in the Coomalie Shire Local Government Area, 98 kilometres south of the territory capital, Darwin...
to accommodate the mining personnel, 8 km south of the mine.
Pollution and cleanup
The mine closed in 1971. The Federal Government (who controlled the mine through its agency the Australian Atomic Energy Commission (AAEC)Australian Atomic Energy Commission
The Australian Atomic Energy Commission was a statutory body of the Australian government.It was established in 1952, replacing the Atomic Energy Policy Committee. In 1981 parts of the Commission were split off to become part of CSIRO, the remainder continuing until 1987, when it was replaced by...
, now known as Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO)
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation is a statutory body of the Australian government, formed in 1987 to replace the Australian Atomic Energy Commission. Its head office and main facilities are in southern outskirts of Sydney at Lucas Heights, in the Sutherland Shire...
) decided not to rehabilitate the mine site. The mining company Conzinc (now part of the Rio Tinto Group, who own Energy Resources of Australia (ERA)
Energy Resources of Australia
Energy Resources of Australia Ltd is a public company based in Australia. It is a subsidiary of the Rio Tinto Group which owns 68.4% of the company. The chairman is David Klingner and chief executive officer is Harry Kenyon-Slaney....
, operators of the Ranger Uranium Mine
Ranger Uranium Mine
The Ranger uranium mine is surrounded by Kakadu National Park, in the Northern Territory of Australia, 230 km east of Darwin. The orebody was discovered in 1969, and the mine commenced operation in 1980, reaching full production of uranium oxide in 1981...
in Kakadu National Park
Kakadu National Park
Kakadu National Park is in the Northern Territory of Australia, 171 km southeast of Darwin.Kakadu National Park is located within the Alligator Rivers Region of the Northern Territory of Australia. It covers an area of , extending nearly 200 kilometres from north to south and over 100 kilometres...
) have consistently denied any responsibility for rehabilitation. This led to the mine becoming one of Australia's worst polluter owing to oxidation of sulphides by bacteria and the subsequent release of acid
Acid
An acid is a substance which reacts with a base. Commonly, acids can be identified as tasting sour, reacting with metals such as calcium, and bases like sodium carbonate. Aqueous acids have a pH of less than 7, where an acid of lower pH is typically stronger, and turn blue litmus paper red...
and metals into the East Finniss River. The 1500 mm annual rainfall coupled with the pyritic mineralisation in the area created ideal conditions for such oxidation.
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 to remove heavy metals and neutralise the tailings.
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 water body in the Darwin region not infested with crocodiles, the site quickly became very popular with locals and Darwin residents as a recreation reserve. After mining, the area suffered elevated external gamma levels, alpha-radioactive dust and significant levels of radon daughters in prevailing air. These levels were so high that in the late 80s it was finally admitted that something had to be done. Radiation protection standards were being revised, so that the levels of pollution would now be officially recognised as unsafe for human health. As a result, a supplementary $1.8 million program to improve Rum Jungle Creek South waste dumps was undertaken in 1990.
One of the main environmental impacts of uranium mining is the creation of large volumes of radioactive mine waste (tailings) which are left behind on the site. The major radioactive component of these tailings is Uranium-238, an isotope with a halflife of 4.46 billion years. In 2003, a government survey of the tailings piles at Rum Jungle found that capping which was supposed to help contain this radioactive waste for at least 100 years, had failed in less than 20 years.
The Territory and Federal Governments continue to argue over responsibility for funding rehabilitation on the polluted East Finniss River
Contamination of local groundwater has yet to be addressed.
Brown's Oxide Project
In December 2001, Compass ResourcesCompass Resources
Compass Resources NL is an Australian mining and mineral exploration company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and currently in voluntary administration since 29 January 2009....
lodged a Referral under the EPBC Act with Environment Australia (which is now DEH). That document referred to the proposed development of a large-scale mining project, the Browns Polymetallic Project, that would produce lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
, cobalt
Cobalt
Cobalt is a chemical element with symbol Co and atomic number 27. It is found naturally only in chemically combined form. The free element, produced by reductive smelting, is a hard, lustrous, silver-gray metal....
, copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
, nickel
Nickel
Nickel is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel belongs to the transition metals and is hard and ductile...
and silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
over a project life of at least 15 years. As indicated in the 2001 Referral, Compass considered that the Browns Polymetallic Project was a ‘nuclear action’ under the EPBC Act, on the basis that the project could be considered to include rehabilitating a facility or area in which mining or milling of uranium ore has previously been undertaken.
Compass suspended its work on the polymetallic proposal in 2002 when low metal prices caused the withdrawal of Compass’s financial partner (Doe Run).
In 2005, Compass lodged an application for a much smaller project focussing on cobalt, nickel and copper mining. Because this project, the Brown's Oxide Project is much smaller than the polymetallic project proposed previously, Compass is in a position to progress it on its own.
The Northern Territory Government
Government of the Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is governed according to the principles of the Westminster system, a form of parliamentary government based on the model of the United Kingdom...
has completed assessing this project and Ms Marion Scrymgour
Marion Scrymgour
Marion Rose Scrymgour is an Australian politician. She has been a member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since 2001, representing the electorate of Arafura. She was the Labor Party Deputy Chief Minister of the Northern Territory from November 2007 until February 2009, and was the...
MLA, Minister for Natural Resources, Environment and Heritage in the Northern Territory Government has advised that she has concluded that the Browns Oxide Project as proposed in the Public Environmental Report and subsequent documents "can be managed without unacceptable environmental impacts"
The Hon. Kon Vatskalis
Kon Vatskalis
Konstantine "Kon" Vatskalis is an Australian politician. He has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since September 2001, representing the Darwin-based electorate of Casuarina...
MLA Minister for Mines and Energy announced this approval as "good news" during question time in the Northern Territory Parliament on 4 May 2006. To ensure the environment is managed properly, this approval and its recommendations is subject to final review by the Commonwealth Government
Government of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia is a federal constitutional monarchy under a parliamentary democracy. The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 as a result of an agreement among six self-governing British colonies, which became the six states...
under a bilateral agreement between the Northern Territory Government and the Commonwealth of Australia.
Pending final Commonwealth approval, the project is set to be in production by early 2007.
While the project is located near the old Rum Jungle mine, the Browns Oxide Project is targeting copper cobalt and nickel—not uranium. Nonetheless, Compass makes no secret that at some future point it would be interested in mining uranium at the nearby Rum Jungle site (over which it holds a lease). Any proposal to mine uranium would require a totally new application and environmental assessment as a separate project.
External links
- company web site- Rum Jungle data at Mindat.orgMindat.orgMindat.org is a non-commercial online mineralogical database, claiming to be the largest mineral database and mineralogical reference website on the internet....
- Rum Jungle mine site, Department of Resources at Government of the Northern TerritoryGovernment of the Northern TerritoryThe Northern Territory is governed according to the principles of the Westminster system, a form of parliamentary government based on the model of the United Kingdom...