Honeymoon mine assessment begins

Honeymoon mine assessment begins

Canadian company Southern Cross Resources has released its environment
impact statement for the proposed Honeymoon uranium mine in north-east
South Australia.

The operation involves four uranium deposits and mining approval is
being sought initially for two deposits with an estimated 7900 tonnes of
uranium oxide (compared to about 90,000 tonnes at the Jabiluka mine in
the Northern Territory). The mine will employ 45 people (according to the
Uranium Information Centre) or 200 people (according to Southern Cross
Resources).

The company plans to use a controversial method to get the uranium:
it will pump sulphuric acid into the underground aquifer to dissolve the
uranium and extract the ore from the solution, and then pump the water
back into the aquifer.

David Noonan from the Australian Conservation Foundation said, “Honeymoon
uranium mine is a plan to pollute, it is a failed technology which has
only been practised in Eastern Europe, resulting in intractable contamination
of groundwater. They have no plan to rehabilitate the aquifer system at
Honeymoon.”

Friends of the Earth and the Australian Conservation Foundation coordinated
protests against the mine in Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide on June 7.

From GLW issue 409