• Honeymoon set for Approval? January 30, 2001
• Honeymoon Update January 25, 2001
  

The Honeymoon uranium mine is to be a liquid nuclear waste dump. The mining company Southern Cross Resources (SCR) of Canada propose the same techniques as at the Beverley uranium mine with discharge of all mine liquid wastes to groundwater. Some 500 cubic metres of liquid wastes per day of discarded acid leachate and chemical process liquids from the uranium extraction plant, containing some 4,600 tonnes/yr of salts and solid residues in solution, including uranium, radium and various metals, are to be discharged into groundwater reserves.

SCR intend to use the polluting Acid In-Situ Leach (acid ISL) to extract the uranium at Honeymoon and at other potential mine sites in the region. This has never been practised at a commercial scale in OECD countries. In the former Eastern Europe and Soviet Republics it has led to large scale and intractable groundwater contamination. In disregard for protection of Australia's groundwater reserves SCR propose to use acid ISL as it produces uranium at some four times the rate of using the less polluting alkaline leachate that is practised in the USA.

SCR have a plan to pollute Australia's groundwater reserves, they do not intend to rehabilitate mining impacts on groundwater at Honeymoon. They would not be allowed to do this in the USA or in Canada. ISL uranium mining standards in the USA require rehabilitation of groundwater to its original quality, condition and composition. This typically comprises some 30% of mine operating costs. SCR seek to compromise environmental standards and to avoid the responsibilities and costs of rehabilitation. This is a dangerous precedent for mining standards in Australia, and may allow otherwise uneconomic mine proposals to go ahead.

The Adnyamathanha Lands Council, which represents the Traditional Owners of the area, is pursuing legal action against the Honeymoon Uranium Mine. Chairperson Gordon Coulthard says Southern Cross Resources has been reluctant to negotiate with the Adnyamathanha people.

"Not one of these mining company representatives have approached the people that are concerned with the native title claims over the land. If they continue to do what they're doing, legal action will have to be taken."

As far as the Adnyamathanha are concerned, the mine is operating illegally.

The SCR is trying to use this EIS to gain approvals for multiple uranium mines, initially at the Honeymoon site and later at Goulds Dam some 80 km north west, and potentially others in large Exploration Lease (EL) areas adjacent to both sites. They propose "Amendments" to this EIS to extend approvals to these other mine sites rather than having to submit a separate EIS for each of these further uranium mine proposals. This would prevent any credible environmental assessment and due public involvement in decision making.

• SEA-US Honeymoon Archive
  • Detailed History
  • What is an ISL mine???
  • Southern Cross Resources
  • The DEF - as limp as they get
    
• Nuclear Information Centre
  General information on South Australian issues
• Humps Not Dumps
  Welcome to the story of the Humps Not Dumps Anti-Nuclear Camel Expedition.
• Keepers of Lake Eyre
  Lake Eyre and the mound springs are calling on Arabunna and all others to return to the land
• Aboriginal Genocide
  Working to stop and prevent the genocide by "Australia" of The Original Peoples of the Land

Honeymoon in Brief

"We would like to work off a timetable where we have approval by the end of this year, and then we can proceed into the construction phase and be in production certainly during 2001."

"We have provisional contracts in place in Europe and the US. Those contracts are totally dependant on approval to mine."

Tom Hunter, SCR Honeymoon Executive Officer