Australian Conservation Foundation call to govt about Olympic Dam uranium mine
The debate over BHP Billiton’s proposed new Olympic Dam open pit mine is entering a new phase as the Minister for Environment assesses and makes a decision on the company’s Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in response to over 4000 public submissions.
The ALP Federal government should require BHP to address key public interests to avoid nuclear risks, to prevent environmental impacts and to commit to on-site copper processing.
BHP Billiton uranium impacts to drive down standards Australian Conservation Foundation, June 2011 BHP Biliton’s proposed new Olympic Dam open pit mine fails to comply with ALP policy commitments for the most stringent conditions
and to ensure world’s best practice standards in uranium mining. ACF calls on the Federal government to:
1. assess the option of copper mining and processing on-site, without uranium sales;
2. prevent leakage of tailings and isolate radioactive waste for at least 10 000 years;
3. extend the use of renewable energy from the desalination plant to all new operations;
4. re-locate the proposed desalination plant to prevent ecological impact from brine waste Continue reading
Health dangers of electromagnetic radiation
The first time that cell phones were associated with cancer risk was in 1997, following a study conducted by Michael Repacholi and his colleagues from the Royal Adelaide Hospital in South Australia that showed an increase in the occurrence of lymphoma in mice exposed to cell phone radiation over a long term.
WHO Rings The Alarm Bell On Mobile Phone? RTT News 2 June “………Mobile phones emit electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range.Over the last few years, there has been a growing concern over the possible health hazards of mobile phone radiation. Continue reading
Uranium mine expansion to damage marine life, leave huge radioactive wastes
plans for the desalination plant would pose a major risk to local marine life……..”Under no circumstances should the governments 
involved in the assessment of the supplementary EIS approve of this desalination plant,”
it will dump more than two cubic kilometres of radioactive tailings over an area measuring up to 44 square kilometres,” Senator Ludlum said.
“The new open pit proposed will leak over eight million litres of radioactive liquids every day.”
OLympic Dam Mine Expansion ‘Staggering’ ninemsn news, 31 May 11 BHP Billiton’s proposed expansion at its Olympic Dam mine in South Australia would make it the biggest mine in the world. The figures involved are simply staggering……….the whole site, with its production and support facilities, will cover an area of about 30 square kilometres, a fair chunk of Adelaide’s metropolitan area…… Continue reading
Gigantic scale of BHP’s planned uranium mine expansion
It’s the end of the world as we know it The Drum, Ben Eltham23 May 11,“……If you want to understand the impact of the “China and India story” on Australia’s economy, one way to do so is to have a quick glance at BHP Billiton’s plans for Olympic Dam.
This month, when the South Australian government announced it was giving a provisional go-ahead to the expansion of Olympic Dam, some of the provisional figures about this development were released. This astonishing feat of human ingenuity will see the excavation of a kilometre of rock in order to mine an ore body with the chimerical value of $1 trillion. Just getting to the ore body will take four years of digging, and at its peak, the mine will consume more electricity than the city of Adelaide – in fact, it will eventual consume about 60 per cent of South Australia’s entire electricity supply.
It will require so much water that BHP is building a huge desalination plant in the upper Spencer Gulf that will make 200 mega-litres of water every day.
The mine will operate for 100 years, producing mainly copper, a key raw material for the hungry Asian factories that make your laptops and phones. So important is it to South Australia’s economic fortunes that South Australian premier Mike Rann told The Australian Financial Review recently that that Olympic Dam was the single biggest demand on his time…..http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2725060.html
Point Lowly desalination plant – profit for BHP, destruction to environment
the Rann Government’s lack of foresight is being clouded by the short term financial windfall created by the mine. “It’s just the cheapest, nastiest alternative,” said Melville-Smith. “There is no planning for the future of South Australia,
The Point Lowly desal plant that’s got SA squabbling Crikey Esther Ooi 23 May 11: BHP Billiton refuses to back down from its controversial plans to build a desalination plant at Point Lowly, South Australia. The plant forms part of the proposed Olympic Dam mine expansion, but fears are growing over the possible risk of significant environmental damage.
“The fact is, it is just the worst place you could put a desalination plant,” Dr. Andrew Melville-Smith, chairperson of the Save Point Lowly group, told Crikey. He also says there will be severe ecological damage on Point Lowly’s recreational, coastal and living areas. Continue reading
Warning on expansion of Olympic Dam uranium mine – report from the ground
“Recent research from Monash University has demonstrated that the mine could operate profitably exporting copper, gold and silver but not uranium. We would like to see the radioactive risks left out of this mine expansion. It is incredibly disappointing that BHP continues to peddle the fiction that uranium export is necessary and unavoidable.”
ROXBY EIS CONCERNS ENVIRONMENTALISTS FROM THE NORTH TO THE SOUTH 23 May 11, The annual Friends of the Earth’s Radioactive Exposure Tour has visited the Olympic Dam mine a week after BHP Billiton‘s Supplementary EIS was released.
The expansion plans which include a 3.5km X 4.1km open pit mine have triggered concerns with environmentalists from Darwin to Melbourne. Continue reading
BHP’s desalination plant a threat to Upper Spencer Gulf ecology
at left – the unique and beautiful Giant Cuttlefish faces extinction by the desalination plant
Green fears aired over Olympic Dam mine plans ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) May 20, 2011 Concerns have been raised about BHP Billiton’s plan to expand the Olympic Dam mine.A fishing group in Upper Spencer Gulf says BHP Billiton’s revised plans do not go far enough to protect the environment.In its revised environmental impact statement, BHP confirmed it will go ahead with a desalination plant at Point Lowly. BHP also plan to build an unloading facility to barge machinery further up the gulf.
Robin Sharp from the Coastal Homes Association says he is worried the region’s ecosystem will be in danger.”We’ve already got an invasive oyster up here that we believe has been introduced by shipping over the last 20 or 30 years, pretty much overrun the whole razorfish intertidal zone, so it will pretty much wipe out all the razorfish in this area,” Mr Sharp said.Green fears aired over Olympic Dam mine plans – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
The enormity of Olympic Dam’s planned nuclear waste mountain, and its cost
“………Mineweb has been detailing the enormity of this project of transforming a large underground mine into a massive open cut – particularly with there being a sterile cover of between 300-400 metres. However, the price for the development has escalated in the past eight years from original projections of about US$S3 billion, in itself a daunting figure for many mining companies….It has been long known that removal of the overburden and rock will create “mountains” in a landscape that is virtually a pancake. Now, Gottliebsen said the rock storage facility covers 6,720 hectares and eventually will be 150 metres high. “By 2050, when the mine has not even completed half its life, the pit will be 4.1 kilometres long, 3.5 km wide and 1 km deep,” …”. Mineweb, 18 May 11
Olympic Dam uranium mine waste pile – 6720 hectares,150 metres high
BHP’s Olympic Dam uranium mining expansion “……In all it will remove a 350-metre thick layer of overburden and the rock taken out will be transported to a rock storage facility that covers 6720 hectares and will eventually be 150 metres high. By 2050, when the mine has not even completed half its life, the pit will be 4.1 kilometres long, 3.5 kilometres wide and one kilometre deep……” – Robert Gottliebson, Climate Spectator
BHP’s uranium mine project will create a mountain of radioactive wastes
“This EIS shows the company has designed Olympic Dam to leak up to eight million litres of liquid radioactive waste per day. BHP Billiton plans to dump radioactive tailings on the surface and leave them there forever, rather than pay to isolate the toxic waste from the environment
BHP Final EIS & ACF Call to account for Olympic Dam’s international impact -BHP Billiton has released a multi-phonebook-sized environmental impact statement to support its proposal to make Olympic Dam the world’s largest uranium project, but the EIS does not address the risks that go along with Australian uranium when it is used in nuclear reactors overseas.
The Australian Conservation Foundation has challenged the company to re-do its environmental assessment to take account of disasters like Fukushima. Continue reading
BHP pushes ahead with uranium mine expansion: public will not be consulted
Time to move beyond talking: BHP Billiton.Adelaide Now Christopher Russell May 14, 2011 THE public will be engaged, but not consulted, on the Olympic Dam expansion, BHP said yesterday. President of BHP’s uranium sector, Dean Dalla Valle, pledged yesterday to continue talking to the community but said the company had to move on to the next phase.
“The formal part is complete,” he said of public input.
Supplementary EIS released for Olympic Dam mine ABC News May 13, BHP Billiton is today releasing its supplementary environmental impact statement (EIS) for the expansion of the Olympic Dam mine. The 15,000-page draft document was handed to the state and federal governments in December.
It contains the mining giant’s response to more than 4,000 public submissions made to the company’s first EIS, released in 2009.The South Australian Government is expected to make a decision on the development later this year.http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/13/3215970.htm
Australian government opposes any expansion of nuclear industry – Penny Wong
Wong said the federal government has made its position on the nuclear industry clear and it was also clear in opposing any expansion of the nuclear industry.
She said solar and wind powered energy should be considered, as should the potential for geothermal energy. “We do have these resources and we should use them,” she said.“We have an underinvestment in the energy sector.”
ENRICHING THE URANIUM DEBATE, Australian Mining, By Jessica Burke 9 May 2011“……Penny Wong recently warned South Australia against becoming involved in nuclear enrichment. The senior federal South Australian Minister and former climate change minister told ABC radio that enriching uranium or having power stations is “not the sort of vision I want for South Australia.” Continue reading
South Australian govt’s unseemly haste to push for uranium mine expansion
Concerns have been raised that the State Government will ram through approval of the $20 billion project on the same day the latest environmental impact statement is released – leaving no room for public consultation.
Concern at pace of mine approval | Adelaide Now, Russell Emerson May 08, 2011 THE latest version of the Olympic Dam expansion is likely to be released publicly on Thursday or Friday. Continue reading
South Australia to be radioactive industries hub?
Christina Macpherson, 3 May 11 Today’s glowing uranium industry news for South Australia carries the promise of future developments. South Australia has long
been suggested as the location for a radioactive nuclear waste import industry. Could this be a logical extension of its nuclear bomb testing past, and its uranium mining future?
Today, Mineweb tells us: South Australia seen as China’s next mining investment frontier. A mining conference in Adelaide today was told that Chinese mining and metal companies view South Australia as the world’s next mining frontier.
While Sydney Morning Herald enthuses about opening up of Woomera to uranium mining
the area was estimated to contain..about 78 per cent of the nation’s uranium… “jolt to drive further development in the future.”[ says Premier Rann]
SA hopeful of mining in Woomera zone, Sydney Morning Herald, Tim Dornin, May 2, 2011 , South Australian Premier Mike Rann says he’s hopeful of a decision soon from the federal government to unlock the mineral wealth in the Woomera Prohibited Area (WPA).
South Australia putting all its eggs into uranium basket?
the proposed $21 billion Olympic Dam mine expansion as a future prospect……..”It is expected BHP Billiton will say yes in early 2012 despite the potential for recent developments to affect the future of Japan’s nuclear energy sector – then it would become the world’s largest mine,” the report says. “These prospects shimmer in the future.”
State’s future in mining just became brighter, Greg Kelton , The Advertiser, April 27, 2011 SOUTH Australia will one day be “a titan of the global resource landscape” but is fighting to keep manufacturing jobs, an economic report says. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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