Olympic Dam mega-mine brings wealth and warnings, :The Australian, MICHAEL OWEN, SA POLITICAL REPORTER,October 11, 2011 “………The existing underground mine, near Roxby Downs in the remote centre of South Australia, will be replaced with an open-pit forecast to be more than 4km long, 3.5km wide and 1km deep, and will produce about 750,000 tonnes of copper and about 19,000 tonnes of uranium oxide a year.
A new waste rock facility will cover almost 7000ha and reach a height of 150m, while tailings storage will use eight new pods, each 65m tall and covering 2sq km. Aside from the new open pit mine, BHP will expand its smelter and build new ore processing and export plants……
The Greens declared the approved expansion a “radioactive waste mountain range” and a disaster for the environment, human health and local employment. “The so-called environment conditions are hopeless – there’s no requirement for this tailing heap to be covered while the mine operates, and it is to operate for at least another 30 years,” Greens nuclear spokesman Scott Ludlam said.
“The new open pit will leak up to 8 million litres of liquid radioactive waste a day by 2020 from the tailings storage facility.”…. Senator Ludlam said Labor governments had left South Australia with a “toxic legacy”.
“Instead of burying the radioactive tailings waste in a properly lined pit, BHP Billiton will dump 70 million tonnes of finely powdered radioactive tailings over an area of 44sqkm; that isn’t a radioactive waste heap, that’s a radioactive waste mountain range,” he said.
South Australian Greens MP Mark Parnell said Labor wanted the project so much it was “prepared to let BHP dictate whatever terms it likes”.
Greens say Olympic Dam expansion a health threat, ABC News, Nance Haxton, October 11, 2011 The Greens say the decision to give the go-ahead for the world’s largest copper and uranium mine will result in enormous harm to public health. The Federal, South Australian and Northern Territory governments have given environmental approval for the expansion of the Olympic Dam mine in South Australia’s north. BHP Billiton’s proposed mine expansion near Roxby Downs has been approved under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
But Greens spokesman Scott Ludlam says the giant tailings dam that BHP Billiton plans for the expansion will eventually contain millions of tonnes of carcinogens, which throws some doubt over whether the crucial Indenture Act will pass the South Australian Parliament. ”For the Environment Minister to say that that’s appropriate for that material to be blowing around on the surface for all time is absolutely extraordinary,” Mr Ludlam said……..
Indenture Act doubts The Indenture Act is yet to be finalised and signed and will include final details such as royalties and how much local companies will be involved in construction….. Once the Government finalises the Indenture Act it is up to BHP Billiton to sign the agreement.
Mike Rann’s last day as Premier is October 20, and with his much publicised preference to have negotiations finalised before he steps down, it is clear the Indenture Act will be complete before then. Once signed the Act will be presented to the South Australian Parliament for approval……
Concerns South Australian Greens Leader Mark Parnell says they still have grave concerns about the project and their approval is far from assured. “We’re talking about the biggest industrial project in this state’s history and we have to get it right,” he said. ”We’re not interested in meeting any artificial timelines that the outgoing Premier may have announced. We want to get this right.”
Another significant aspect is the expansion of the uranium mining operation, exporting 19,000 tonnes of uranium oxide a year through ports in Darwin or Adelaide. Mr Ludlam says the environmental approval process is a disgrace. ”At Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory the company has an obligation to isolate the tailings, put them back into the pit and look after them for 10,000 years. That’s actually written into their licence condition,” he said.
“In South Australia the company will be allowed to dump a vastly larger volume of carcinogenic tailings and leave them on the surface and walk away. That’s an extraordinary public hazard lying there essentially for all time.” Part of the approval process requires BHP to significantly start construction within the next five years.
BHP Billiton’s board will make a final decision on whether to proceed by Easter next year. Mr Koutsantonis says if they decide not to go ahead all environmental approvals will lapse and the process will effectively start again……http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-10/greens-say-olympic-dam-expansion-is-a-health-threat/3459778 don’t use
BHP’s $45b giant: the bigger,deeeper Olympic Dam, SMH, David Wroe October 11, 2011
THE massive planned expansion of BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam mine would plague South Australia with radioactive waste and water overuse, say green groups, dismissing government assurances of strict evironmental standards. After both the federal and South Australian governments gave the go-ahead to the expansion of the copper and uranium mine about 550 kilometres north of Adelaide yesterday, environmentalists and the Greens blasted BHP Billiton’s plans.
The expansion will increase sixfold the amount of ore retrieved from Olympic Dam, making it the biggest open-cut mine in the world…… BHP Billiton would have to establish a biodiversity conservation area of 140,000 hectares and submit detailed environmental and water management plans to the minister for approval…..
BHP Billiton will now decide whether to accept the conditions and go ahead with the expansion….. the Greens spokesman on nuclear issues, Senator Scott Ludlam, said the expansion would create a ”carcinogenic mountain range”.
The waste from the uranium extraction and processing, known as tailings, would be left on the surface rather than buried in a lined pit, he said. ”That isn’t a radioactive waste heap – that’s a radioactive waste mountain range. The so-called environment conditions are hopeless – there’s no requirement for this tailing heap to be covered while the mine operates.”
Dave Sweeney, national nuclear campaigner with the Australian Conservation Foundation, also attacked the plans. ”It’s a deeply disappointing decision that will see significant adverse environmental damage at that site, particularly the large volumes of unsustainable water use and the generation of long- lived radioactive waste with minimal management that poses effectively perpetual pollution.”
The mine’s need for water will rise from 42 million litres a day to an average of 240 million litres……
Willem Vervoort, professor of Hydrology at the University of Sydney, who has followed the plans, said he understood environmental concerns had to be balanced against economic opportunities but said BHP Billiton was missing an opportunity by not ending its use of Great Artesian Basin water altogether.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/water-issues/bhps-45b-giant-the-bigger-deeper-olympic-dam-20111010-1lhly.html#ixzz1aV5rvc00
BHP says “Jump” ”How high” says South Australian govt Mark Parnell, 10 Oct 11 Today’s approval of the Olympic Dam Expansion is not surprising; what’s surprising is how weak the Government’s conditions are, say the Greens. “These so-called ‘stringent’ conditions are nothing more than a re-hashing of all the weak commitments that BHP Billiton has already promised for years,” said Greens Parliamentary Leader Mark Parnell.
“Today’s assessment report shows this project will be worlds away from ‘world’s best environmental practice’. “This ridiculous spin from the State and Federal Governments has got to stop. It does no-one any credit. “They should just be honest and say ‘we want this project too much and we’re prepared to let BHPB dictate whatever terms it likes in order to get it’,” he said.
The Greens will insist on a decent debate in State Parliament to scrutinise the hundreds of pages expected in the project’s Indenture Agreement.“The Government must not rush the approval legislation for the Olympic Dam Expansion through State Parliament to meet an artificial deadline of its own making,” Mr Parnell said.
“Pretty much everything the world’s richest resource company has asked for they have been given by a State Government desperate to ink a contract before the Premier departs. “Parliament must not be a mere rubber stamp in the same way that this Government has been,” he said.
BHP clears approval hurdles for $20b Olympic Dam, The Age, October 10, 2011 Global miner BHP Billiton secured environmental approval from the South Australian government on Monday for an estimated $20 billion expansion of its massive Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine.
BHP Billiton is expected to give the final go-ahead for the project by June 2012. It has yet to reveal the cost of the expansion but analysts rank it as possibly the single biggest on the drawing board of the world’s biggest miner.The state approval comes only hours after the federal government also gave the project the environmental go-ahead.
Olympic Dam Nation, Nectaria Calan,10 oct 11, “If we don’t do something, South Austalia’s going to cop it,” stated Uncle Kevin Buzzacott, an Arabunna elder from the Lake Eyre region, at a public forum about the Olympic Dam expansion titled ‘Olympic Dam Nation: The impacts of uranium mining from Olympic Dam to Fukushima.’ The forum was held yesterday afternoon in Adelaide. Forum organisers were pleased with the community response.
Dr Gavin Mudd, hydrogeologist from Monash University, discussed the environmental impacts of the mine on the mound springs in the Lake Eyre region, in the context of the proposed increase in water extraction from the Great Artesian Basin from the current 37 million litres of water per day to 42 million litres per day.
Dr Jochen Kaempf, lecturer and researcher in oceanography at Flinders University, outlined the long term impacts of brine from the proposed desalination plant on the marine ecosystem.
David Noonan, nuclear–free campaigner, outlined the impact of 44 square kilometers of radioactive tailings dams and Australia’s contribution to the nuclear fuel chain.
Mark Parnell, member of the Legislative Council for the Greens, discussed the Roxby Downs Indenture Act, a contract between BHP and the South Australian Government which overrides several state laws.
“It’s clear the public are only being told a fraction of the story,” said forum organiser Nathan Adams. “BHP and the South Australian government are painting a rosy picture of the Olympic Dam expansion and today we have heard the ugly truth.”
“Today we learned that the proposed desalination plant will cause irreversible damage to the marine ecosystems of the Upper Spencer Gulf. The new mine will cause the health of the mound springs at Lake Eyre to continue to decline, and it’s tailing dams will leak 8 million litres of radioactive waste per day for the first decade of the mines life,” said Mr Adams.
A community rally will be held on the 20th of October to coincide with BHP Billiton’s London Annual General Meeting. Rally organisers aim to send a clear message to the government and BHP that the community is in opposition to the proposed expansion.
Pressure on BHP’s water use, as Olympic Dam mine set to expand, ABC Rural By Warwick Long, 10/10/2011 An announcement about the future of BHP Billiton’s planned expansion of the Olympic Dam Mine will happen today.The report on the environmental impact for the project will be made public by the South Australian Government at 2 p.m. central time.
Campaigners say the government should use this step to review BHP’s water use, particularly from the Great Artesian Basin. Independent Senator Nick Xenophon says the company, which is building its own desalination plant, should stop using artesian water. ”I think they need to wean themselves off it,” he said. ”That’s the issue, and using the full extent of 42 million litres a day for year after year, I don’t think is the right thing to do.”If there is an alternative source, then they should go to that alternative source.” http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201110/s3335889.htm
