Kintyre

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

"The three act nightmare of a uranium mine on Aboriginal land in a national park"
                              Jo Vallentine

This deposit was discovered by CRA Exploration in 1985 within the boundaries of the Karlamilyi-Rudall River National Park. By 1988 reserves of around 35,000 tonnes of uranium oxide had been estimated, making it the second largest in WA.

Following extensive lobbying by CRA, the Kintyre Project Area was excised from the national park by the WA state Liberal government in April 1993, passing legislation that lay on the table from the previous Labor Government (Premier Carmen Lawrence). This excision arose from the 13th of Nov 1990 Resolution of Conflict document produced by the Labor party.

The Kintyre deposit has an estimated mean uranium recovery rate of 2.75 kg uranium per tonne. Given company figures of an output prospect of 35,000 tonnes of yellowcake we can expect around 12,727,273 tonnes of ore to be processed at the site.

This figure does not include the overburden which would have to be removed to allow access to the deposit. The waste products of this process will take up more volume than the original rock. Around 85% of the original radioactivity of the ore will remain in these wastes.

The processes to be used in extracting the uranium will be undertaken in two stages consisting of a predominately dry upgrading phase, which has very high occupational health and safety implication, and a wet phase where the uranium is recovered. The dry plant will be used because mineralisation at Kintyre is characterised by veins of uranium with little uranium disseminated through the host rock which makes the orebody suitable for radiometric sorting.

The accept fraction of ore will then pass to the wet plant for processing whilst the reject material will be stockpiled. It is noted that processing options for the reject material may be investigated in the future, this processing would require a wet process.

This means that in addition to the solid wastes there will be liquid wastes produced at the site. The presence of such materials poses significant environmental problems. The area around the Kintyre site is both arid and fragile. Water is extremely scarce.

The constant extraction from subterranean aquifers for any wet process may have a severe impact. The problems of the storage, treatment and management of mine waste waters are also significant and provide a very real pathway for environmental degradation. The proposed road transport of uranium oxide also poses a risk to both the surrounding environment and persons.

The roads in the region are long and rough and subject to extremes of weather and conditions. Accidents in the area are common and the risk of spillage is very real.

Aboriginal traditional owners of the Karlamilyi region have previously expressed deep concerns over the development of the Kintyre deposit. In 1988 the national media carried reports on how two members of the community travelled to London to the Annual General Meeting of RTZ (now formally a dual listed company with CRA) to express their concerns that uranium mining would destroy traditional lifestyles and pose a threat to sacred sites and sites of significance.

In Alice Springs on the 20 April 1997, the Martu and number of aboriginal groups from around Australia made a meeting declaration which put their opposition very plainly.

Development of this large deposit has been put on hold while Rio Tinto search for further new deposits to increase the viability of the project. While it is currently considered 'on-hold', should they discover new resources or should the spot price recover, Kintyre could be in production very rapidly.

Kintyre Photo Gallery

Kintyre in Brief