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Multinational nuclear conglomerate
General Atomics has entered the Australian uranium industry through
its subsidiary, Heathgate Resources
Pty Ltd. In December 2000 commercial production began at its Beverley
acid In Situ Leach (ISL) Uranium Mine
in north eastern South Australia. Although small by conventional mine
standards, Beverley is among the largest ISL mines in the world - and
is the first in the western world to use this destructive mining method
whereby acid is pumped into the ground to bond with the uranium. (Alkaline
solutions are used in the USA, having less impact on the environment
but a lower yield of uranium.) Despite significant scientific
evidence, Heathgate continues to claim, like Southern Cross at Honeymoon,
that there are no demonstrable risks or impacts on groundwater quality,
but they point blank refuse to release their field ISL trial data to
prove their claims.The conditions of the orebody at Beverley point clearly
to major long term impacts. Beverley and other uranium
mining and exploration in the Gammon (Northern Flinders) Ranges have
been opposed by the elders of the Adnyamathanha since the 1910s when
it was first discovered. If the General’s cohorts
are to stay profitable in the depressed uranium market, with the price
again as low as US$7.10 per pound of yellowcake, Beverley must continue
to have the lowest of environmental standards to ensure profitability.
It is critical that they hear from the Australian people that we won’t
tolerate our precious groundwater being disregarded and polluted by
foreign nuclear multinationals desperate to make a buck in a dying industry. The
proposed Honeymoon Acid In Situ
Leach (ISL) Uranium Mine is at a critical stage. The company, Southern
Cross Resources Inc. of Canada (SCR), released its Supplementary Environmental
Impact Statement in mid November 2000 but still refuses to release key
monitoring details of the field ISL trials from 1998 to 2000 and the
earlier disastrous trial in 1982 to prove its claims that this method
has no impact on the groundwater. Environment Minister Robert Hill has
postponed his approval by a month, until January 31, 2001. As a junior mining company, SCR have very little scope for other projects if Honeymoon is stopped or if Mr Hill imposes realistic scientific and environmental conditions on the project, which would make the mine unprofitable. Pressure must be applied urgently to Hill and Environment Australia to force SCR to abandon Honeymoon and the uranium industry. We should remember that it was community action in May 1982 - Australia’s first blockade of a nuclear site - which helped empower the SA Bannon Labor government to stop Honeymoon in March 1983. Gavin Mudd |
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the Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western
Australia
email robin@anawa.org.au |
