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The
Northern Territory
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of Australia's uranium is concentrated in the Top End, in the ruggedly
beautiful Alligator Rivers area east of Darwin. The largest single deposit
is Jabiluka, which ERA
is now planning to mine.
The Northern Territory is home to Ranger, one of the two operating mines in this country. The Alligator Rivers Region contains several other uranium deposits. The Nabarlek mine operated from 1979 to 1989, and has been decommissioned. The mine processing plant has been taken down and the ruins buried in the mine pit along with tailings, and covered with waste rock. The Koongarra uranium deposit - itself quite significant - has not been developed because of the Commonwealth Government's policy which restricted the size of the uranium mining industry in Australia. In 2000 the Northern Land Council advised the proponent (Cogema) that the Traditional Owners would be ceasing negotiations for a period of five years, in a move which was seen as a significant setback for the company. Exploration is continuing in the east of the area, in Arnhem Land, and some discoveries have been reported to date. The only other areas of significant uranium mineralisation in the NT are in the South Alligator Valley, now in the southern part of Kakadu National Park where thirteen small mines (some with gold) were worked from 1953 to 1964; in the Rum Jungle area 80 km south of Darwin, where uranium, copper, cobalt and silver were produced from 1951 to 1970; and the Pandanus Creek area near the border with Queensland, where uranium was mined from 1960 - 1962 and trucked to Rum Jungle for treatment. |
TERRITORY LINKS
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the Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western
Australia
email admin@anawa.org.au |
