Ranger Uranium Mine Totally Explained

Everything about The Ranger Uranium Mine totally explained

The Ranger uranium mine is surrounded by Kakadu National Park, in the Northern Territory of Australia, 230 km east of Darwin. The orebody was discovered in 1969, and the mine commenced operation in 1980, reaching full production of uranium oxide in 1981. It is operated by Energy Resources of Australia, a 68% subsidiary of Rio Tinto Group.
Uranium mined at Ranger is sold for use in nuclear power stations in Japan, South Korea, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden and the United States.
In early 2006, ERA announced an expansion to the ore processing plant which will allow production to extend into lower-grade material and in November 2006 the company announced plans to invest in a Laterite processing plant, which will allow it to process ore with a high clay content that has been stockpiled since the mine began operating. This ore had been already included in stated reserves. The Laterite processing plant will contribute 400 tonnes of Uranium oxide per year from 2008 until 2014. .

Environmental issues

Ranger uranium mine, being within the highly respected and iconic Kakadu preserve, and being a uranium mine is highly sensitive politically for its environmental impact upon this wilderness area.
   The main long-term environmental impact of uranium mining is that posed by the large volumes of tailings, mining waste in the form of particularised sand, which remain on the minesite. Guidelines from the International Atomic Energy Agency describe the project area as particularly unsuitable for tailings storage. The original pit is now being used to store tailings.
   Contrary to the recommendations of the Fox Report,neither the tailings dam nor the tailings dump in Pit #1 are isolated by lining, or any other significant physical barrier. As a result the mine site continues to suffer from seepage from these tailings stores of contaminated water which is juggled between the ponds and these tailings dumps.
   Due to inadequate estimation of annual rainfall in the design phase,
   the mine has continued to suffer routine seasonal failure of the water management systems. A mine closure model has been developed by the company and is provided for in the balance sheet to the value of over AU$180 million. However opponents warn that this may be as little as one fifth of the final cost of rehabilitation.
   The rehabilitation plan hasn't been made public, and environmentalists warn that plans for further expansion
   will further widen the gap between needs and means for remediation of the mine site.

Safety breaches and controversy

Environment Australia (an agency of the Government of Australia) have documented over 200 environmental incidents since 1979. Radiologically contaminated process water had contaminated the drinking water supply and some workers drank and washed in the contaminated water. The maximum radiation exposure of workers was likely to have been much less than the regulatory limit, and no harmful long-term health effects are likely.
Other incidents involving decontamination of vehicles have been identified.
Another significant controversy over Ranger's environmental impact is the public legal confrontation over releases into Magella Creek in the 1995 wet season. More recently, the ARRAC report from 2002 details a major leak of about 2 megalitres of potentially polluted water, over a number of months. In 2007, water breached a retention pond, overflowing back into the pit. The original authorisation required that this water be contained at all times. In 2006, water management systems were knocked into disarray by Cyclone Monica, demonstrating how powerless the miner is against the very real possibility of a direct hit.

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