By Rob Graham
Western Mining Corporation (WMC) has already started on a $1 billion expansion of its Olympic Dam uranium mine at Roxby Downs. A 113.5 km pipeline is being constructed to pump water from a new bore field ("B"), from the Great Artesian Basin to the mine.
This had already been given the green light by the federal Labor government.
WMC plans to increase the current annual production of the mine, around 85,000 tonnes (of copper, uranium, silver and gold), to 150,000 tonnes. This would mean a doubling of the production of uranium, from 1500 to 3000 tonnes.
The original environmental impact statement covers such an increase, according to WMC. Friends of the Earth, however, had been informed by the executive of the Commonwealth Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that WMC would probably be in breach of the law if no new EIS was submitted for any planned expansion. The EPA has since retreated from this position.
Friends of the Earth argues that the original EIS was flawed in any case, and that WMC cannot be trusted to manage the mine responsibly. Specific State legislation, the Roxby Downs Indenture, was passed to enable the mine to go ahead. Under this legislation, WMC is its own environmental watchdog.
Doubling the size of the mine would mean a doubling of the amount of liquid fed into the retention system (which did not comply with the designs outlined in the original EIS, and had a massive leak in 1994), and a tripling of the water required for the mine and township, from 10-15 to 42 megalitres a day. Already, degradation of unique local mound springs has been detected. Any increased extraction from the Great Artesian Basin would increase the likelihood of their destruction.
Despite claims to the contrary, local Aboriginal people have been consulted very little by WMC (despite requirements to do so), and have expressed serious concerns about the environmental and cultural damage expected with the expansion of the mine.