Roxby Downs expansion to cause irreparable damage
By Emma Webb
ADELAIDE — On March 26, the $1.9 billion expansion of Western Mining Corporation's (WMC) Roxby Downs mine in the north of South Australia was launched by Prime Minister John Howard.
Those attending were treated to silver service meals, golf and winery tours. SA's establishment newspaper, the Advertiser, celebrated the occasion with a full-colour, eight-page spread. It described the mine and its expansion as "a marvellous return from what 15 years ago was regarded as a useless area of red sand and mulga".
However, the history of the Roxby Downs mine proves otherwise.
WMC discovered one of the world's largest copper and uranium deposits at Olympic Dam in 1975. By 1979, work on the site had begun as a joint venture between WMC and British Petroleum. In June 1982, an indenture agreement was signed between the state Liberal government and the companies.
The Roxby Downs Indenture Ratification Act of 1982 gives WMC and the government the right to withhold information from the public unless both parties agree to release it, obligates the state to facilitate access to Great Artesian Basin water free of charge, and overrides existing Aboriginal heritage and environmental legislation.
The act refers to the annual production of copper and "associated products". It sets no limit on the amount of uranium that can be mined and/or processed at Roxby Downs. In 1984, the federal Labor government approved the production of up to 150,000 tonnes of copper per annum. The mine commenced production in 1988.
In February 1994, WMC announced that up to 5 billion litres of liquid waste had escaped from its tailings system. Tailings retain 80% of the radioactivity of the original uranium ore and liquid tailings are 100,000 times more acidic than the ground water.
According to WMC, the leakage had been occurring for two years but only became known in January 1994. A 1995 parliamentary inquiry found that the design, monitoring and supervision of the tailings system was deficient. It found that only when the leak was too big to ignore was action taken. Despite these findings, the inquiry concluded that it was highly unlikely that the leak would have harmful effects.
To this day, the mine's tailings storage system remains unlined, still leaks and the location of the toxic radioactive pollutants is still unknown.
In 1995, WMC applied to expand its production to 150,000 tonnes per annum of copper and for the development of a new Great Artesian Basin bore-field. In January 1996, the federal Labor government approved the expansion and the state Liberal government granted a special water license. In December 1996, amendments to the Indenture Act gave WMC the legal right to extract 42 million litres of water each day from the Great Artesian Basin for the next 40 years.
The Roxby Downs Amendment Bill was introduced into the SA parliament on October 24, 1996, and was passed in the Legislative Council, supported by the ALP, on November 28. There was virtually no public consultation.
The amendments gave WMC total control over Aboriginal sites of significance, with the power to decide which sites were to be protected. WMC was freed from any obligation to consult Aboriginal communities. The amendments gave WMC permission to use 250 megawatts of power per year, from SA or interstate, to generate power on site from gas delivered by a pipeline from Moomba and to export power from Roxby.
The amendments facilitated a $1.25 billion expansion that increased production from 84,000 tonnes to around 200,000 tonnes of refined copper and associated uranium, gold and silver. This 135% increase in production resulted in only a 20% increase in permanent on-site jobs. Each job cost $6.25 million to create.
The latest expansion will nearly double production. Each job created will cost $9.5 million.
The expansion will increase uranium production from 1500 to 4600 tonnes per year. To date, more than 13,000 tonnes of uranium ore concentrate have been extracted and exported from Roxby. Copper mining will increase from 200,000 tonnes to 350,000 tonnes per year.
While uranium mining may appear to be a small part of WMC operations at Roxby, uranium output accounts for 25% of its income.
The environmental impact of the expansion will be enormous. In 1996-1997, Roxby generated 422,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. The expansion will increase this to 1.5 million tonnes per year. In 1998, Roxby's use of electricity was equivalent to 10% of the SA's usage. In 1996-97, there were 2.7 million tonnes of radioactive tailings covering 190 hectares. The expansion will increase the output of tailings to 12.5 million tonnes per year.
Even without the expansion, the mine is causing irreparable damage to both the cultural and environmental heritage of the Lake Eyre region. The destruction of the mound springs of the area is a direct result of the amount of water WMC extracts from the Great Artesian Basin. The mound springs are of profound cultural significance to Arabunna people, traditional owners of the Lake Eyre region.
[Next week: the Arabunna people's struggle against WMC and Roxby Downs.]