Media releases
Ranger shutdown reveals unfeasibility of expansion – Mirarr call for independent surface water study
Publish Date: 9th February 2011
The recent shutdown of milling facilities at the Ranger Uranium Mine at Kakadu National Park has
confirmed the impossibility of the proposed expansion of the mine under current conditions,
according to the Mirarr traditional Aboriginal owners of the site. The comments follow the recent
announcement by ERA that it has shutdown milling for three months due to water management
problems.
The Ranger mine operates just kilometres upstream of the Aboriginal community of Madjinbardi
and World Heritage-listed wetlands. For over a decade the Mirarr have persistently argued for an
overhaul to its environmental performance, particularly water management. An environmental
impact statement on the proposed expansion of the mine, involving the use of acid leaching of
uranium, an increase in the capacity of the tailings dam to six metres above its original design
height, and a separate proposal to conduct underground mining, are due this year.
“ERA has made many mistakes at Ranger. They haven’t really listened to us and now they have all
this trouble with water. They can’t look after Ranger now. We don’t believe they can look after the
mine if they make it bigger,” said Mirarr Senior Traditional Owner, Yvonne Margarula. “We are
worried, always worried,” Ms Margarula added.
Examples of Ranger’s poor environmental performance in recent years include structural problems
with the current operating pit; seepage from the previous pit; an increasing inventory of
contaminated process water that is now of the order of 10 million litres; contamination of drinking
water and showers causing injury to workers; and persistent and unquantified seepage from the
tailings dam.
Executive officer of the Gundjeihmi Corporation, Justin O’Brien, said the situation has resulted in
increasing concern among Mirarr that country is being contaminated, food supplies compromised,
water polluted, and the timeline for mine rehabilitation stretched.
“The Gundjeihmi Corporation is particularly concerned that ERA, given these current problems at
Ranger, has little prospect of being able to appropriately manage the greatly-expanded facilities
that it envisages in the near future,” Mr O’Brien said.
Accordingly, the Corporation has called for ERA to implement the recommendations made by the
2003 Senate Inquiry into Environmental Management of Uranium Mines by including the current
real time monitoring equipment into the statutory monitoring regime and to instigate an
independent review of surface water management at the mine site. At the Corporation’s request an
independent review was conducted last year into groundwater management at Ranger. That
process should now be duplicated for surface waters.
“We’re now calling on ERA, as an important first step, to duplicate the process adopted last year
regarding groundwater and to commission an expert independent study into surface water
management. We need this demonstration of good faith from the company at this critical juncture,”
Mr O’Brien concluded.