Antinuclear

But not everyone’s happy……. Traditional owners and environmental groups want to see ERA exit in 2021.

But if a second project currently in exploration turns out to be feasible, the brine concentrator may help them stay on if the relevant parties can be convinced it’s possible to mine in an environmentally safe way……. Managing water is at the heart of the mine’s considerations in the Top End, which experiences monsoonal rain for months on end every year, says operations manager Tim Eckersley.

“When you consider where we operate, the extremes of weather we experience, managing water is a critical component of operations,” he says.

In 2011, the mine had to shut down production for six months because of extensively contaminated water, says Justin O’Brien, CEO of the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation (GAC) which manages mining royalties on behalf of the Mirarr people, the traditional owners of the land who opposed the mine’s development in 1978.

“With billions of (contaminated) litres sitting here and an Aboriginal community six kilometres downstream, that alarmed us,” he tells AAP.

The GAC sees the brine concentrator as a positive step towards keeping the water safe and clean, as does the Australian Conservation Foundation, calling it “overdue but welcome”. “We don’t see (the brine concentrator) as meaning it will be okay for them to now dig a new underground mine at Ranger,” spokesman Dave Sweeney says.

“It’s technically feasible (they could continue mining after 2021), yes they could probably do it, but there’s these other factors that pose the question: is it really worth it? “Are you prepared to own the consequent problems should you decide to go there?”………

Mr O’Brien says traditional owners of the land want ERA to stick to the 2021 deadline.

“It’s never crossed our mind that they would mine beyond 2021,” he says. “They would need to be very persuasive and bring other things to the table were we to consider a new mining (permission), which is ultimately not our decision but that of the federal government.”

Since the Fukushima disaster of 2011 the uranium market has bottomed out, with prices dropping about 50 per cent, and it’s this that the Australian Conservation Foundation hopes will convince ERA’s owners Rio Tinto not to seek an extension should Ranger 3 Deeps prove viable beyond 2021.

“The only thing ERA do is mine uranium in Kakadu; (they’re) one of Kakadu’s endangered species,” Sweeney says.

But Rio Tinto may decide to walk away from the project at its mandated deadline. “They will be acutely aware that they will be judged long into the future on how they exit Kakadu,” Sweeney says.

“If they cut corners, costs, and leave it a mess, that will hang over them and affect market access, other stakeholders’ confidence in the company, and future projects.”

But as the wet season looms and the brine concentrator begins churning out clean water, ERA insists it is only looking to 2021. http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/business/a/-/national/19011586/debate-warming-up-over-ranger-mine-future/