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The Beverley site is located 520 km north of Adelaide, South Australia. This is a low rainfall area with sparse hard trees and shrubs, reliant on underground water for development. Currently it is owned by Heathgate Resources Pty Ltd (a subsidiary of General Atomics). The deposit was discovered in 1969, with an average grade of 0.18% and 21,000 tonnes of uranium oxide in an orebody 4 kilometres long and 500 metres wide. Beverley is being mined by solution mining techniques (in-situ leaching). This involves the percolation of acids through the soil and rock to dissolve the uranium. The resultant solution is then pumped back to the surface. The South Australian Labour
government refused approval in 1982.
In a decision with huge implications, Environment Minister Robert Hill announced on March 18, 1999 that he saw no environmental reason to stop development of the Beverley Uranium Mine. The Beverley site, 300km north of Port Augusta, is now the second uranium mine given 'environmental' approval since the election of John Howard's pro-nuclear coalition.
Heathgate expects to extract 1000 tonnes of uranium a year over 15 years using the in-situ leaching (ISL) technique. This will see millions of litres of sulphuric acid pumped into the groundwater to dissolve the uranium, which Victorian hydrogeologist Gavin Mudd describes candidly as "World's Worst Practice". ISL using sulphuric acid is banned in the US, as the technique leads to massive, permanent groundwater contamination. Heathgate has no requirement to rehabilitate the site following mining, and will be pumping huge quantities of liquid radioactive waste back into the ground as the cheapest means of disposal. Heathgate insist that the Beverley aquifer is completely isolated from surrounding waterbodies (a geological impossibility) and the SA government has tried to calm fears of deadly contamination by pointing out that the groundwater is saline and not of any present economic use. This surreal position makes clear that unless something has the potential for commercial exploitation, it has no right to exist. The fact that groundwater is a vital part of the hydrological cycle keeping each of us alive is obviously of no consequence. Heathgate have been running textbook divide-and-rule tactics with the local traditional owners, the Adnyamathanha people, and have created the impression that they support the Beverley project. Artie Wilton, the last Wilyaru man for the Adnyamathanha people lives in Copley with his family that care for him. Artie represents the knowledge, magic, and ancient survival skills of his people and culture. Aboriginal people feel the pain in the death of their culture and land to which they are bound. The destruction of their culture, the loss of traditional lifestyle and holes in the ground. Aboriginal people have called for an end to the genocide and for the birth of decolonialisation. Artie Wilton and his family, like many other elders and many other Aboriginal groups still oppose uranium mining and the destruction pollution and degradation of their traditional homelands. We've come to expect the predatory tactics multinational mining companies use in their efforts to exploit the earth at all costs - what does sting is the dedication of our elected representatives in making it possible.
Robert Hill was meant to be Minister for the Environment - since when did cheerleading the commercial prospects of the mining industry become part of this portfolio? Implications of the decision
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the Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western
Australia
email robin@anawa.org.au |
