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Yeelirrie is Western Australia's
largest uranium deposit, and one of the most heavily tested. Since the
discovery of 35,000 tonnes of radioactive rock lying exposed at Yeelirrie,
a community campaign was successful in forcing the owner to clean up the site.
Researchers from the Anti-Nuclear
Alliance of Western Australia were dismayed to discover that 35,000
tonnes of raw uranium ore were stockpiled in the open air on a pastoral
station south-west of Wiluna.
The site was remediated in 2003 and 2004 after a 20 year campaign to have the ore reburied.
The ore, in the form of a powdery white rock known as calcrete, was sitting
in four large stockpiles around three open-cut test pits.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Western
Mining Corporation conducted extensive tests at Yeelirrie, going
as far as sending ore to Kalgoorlie for processing. Following the introduction
of the ALP's Three Mines Policy, which banned any new uranium projects,
Yeelirrie was shelved.
In a report released in 1997, WMC admitted to having left the site unfenced
and without warning signs for 13 years. Belatedly, a cleanup of the
contaminated site was undertaken, which involved fencing the areas of
worst radiation and posting danger signs on the fences.
 Essentially, the 'cleanup' consisted of pushing the ore into
piles for later recovery. For 6 years, the radioactive rock
was blowing in the breeze, washing into the water supply and gradually
cycling into the local environment. Beta and Gamma radiation emissions
from these piles were as high as 56 times normal background.
The real danger in leaving this kind of material exposed is that once
radioactive isotopes have entered the food chain in large quantities,
there is no meaningful possibility of a cleanup. Cancers and genetic
diseases will follow as the poisons accumulate in the tissues of living
creatures, including the bush foods - kangaroos and wallabies - of local
indigenous people.
 The
exploration pits were left exposed, and had collected substantial
quantities of water. Ground-level readings inside one of the pits were
as high as 50 times background.
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Yeelirrie
Photo Gallery
Yeelirrie
in Brief
| Discovered:
1972 |
| Average Grade
U3O8:
0.15% |
| Reserves:
52,000 tonnes |
| Other
Minerals:
Vanadium |
| Operators:
BHP Billiton |
| Shire:
Wiluna |
| Yeelirrie Pastoral
Station |
"Mining is a
part of civilisation, and Aborigines have to be part of civilisation".
UG Managing Director demonstrating his sensitivity to land rights
issues.
"We been fighting
for Yeelirrie. The sacred ground is each side of Yeelirie. 'Yeelirrie'
is white man's way of saying. Right way is 'Youlirrie'. Youlirrie means
'death', Wongi (Aboriginal) way. Anything been shifted from there means
death. People been finished from there, early days, all dead, but white
fella can't see it."
Peter Hogarth (Yambilli), Roley Hill (Nulli) and Croydon Beaman,
Aboriginal tribespeople living near Leonora.
"Yeelirrie
and the Kalgoorlie Research Plant were in an unacceptable state, and
did not meet Company requirements."
WMC Press release explaining why they had exposed people to high
levels of radiation for more than ten years at their research plant.
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