By Stan Thompson
ADELAIDE — The state government is set to give the go ahead for an expansion of the uranium mining industry in South Australia, with final approval pending for the Beverley and Honeymoon mines. The government was due to make a final decision last week, but postponed it until next month.
The Beverley and Honeymoon mines, which have been producing uranium on "trial" since January 2 and April 17 respectively, were granted approval to operate for up to 12 months.
The Beverley site is north-east of the Flinders Ranges and operated by the US company General Atomics. The Honeymoon site is west of Broken Hill and operated by Southern Cross, which is based in Canada.
This is not the first time that mining at Beverley has been proposed. In 1983, the SA government was forced to abandon a proposal to mine at Beverley when it could not guarantee the integrity of the water supply and surrounding environment.
Of added concern this time, however, is the use at both mines of an experimental uranium extraction technique known as in-situ leaching (ISL).
In ISL, sulphuric acid is injected into an aquifer, dissolving the uranium from the ore into a solution. The mining company attempts to control the movement of this toxic solution underground and pump it back to the surface to extract the uranium.
Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) spokesperson David Noonan said: "The technique has not been used commercially, except in Eastern Europe. The acid leachate mobilises a range of radioactive materials and heavy metals, creating pollution and rehabilitation problems. ACF research confirms there is no demonstrated capacity to rehabilitate ground water after acid ISL uranium mining."
Amazingly, General Atomics has not been required to rehabilitate ground water after the trials, and has been given the right to discharge all of the liquid waste from trial mining into the aquifer containing the uranium deposit, including radioactive, chemical and heavy metals waste.