Uranium mine still leaking 30 years on

SHUT DOWN: The closed Mary Kathleen uranium mine near Mount Isa in Central Queensland. Source: The Courier-Mail

THE state's last uranium mine at Mary Kathleen - in the Selwyn Range between Mount Isa and Cloncurry - is still leaking radioactive water from the site 30 years after production stopped.

But, according to a committee report handed to the State Government this week, the return of uranium mining to Queensland is "risky but manageable".

"The uranium mining industry has a number of inherent environmental risks," the report said.

"In general, these risks are consistent with other large-scale mining activities . . . and are manageable."

The report says the Mary Kathleen mine's pit is still full of highly contaminated water to a depth of about 50m, and since the mine closed in 1982, several other studies have found "ongoing environmental legacy issues".

Those include the seepage of acidic, metal-rich, radioactive waters from the base of the tailings dam into the former evaporation ponds and local drainage system.

Surface waters downstream of the mine's tailings dam have concentrations of contaminants that exceed the Australian water quality guideline values for livestock drinking water.

Australian Conservation Foundation spokesman Dave Sweeney said there was no evidence that uranium mining was safe because not one former mine had been rehabilitated properly.

"In the Northern Territory there is a range of old mines, maybe a dozen or more, that are still being cleaned up 50 years after the event," Mr Sweeney said.

Although Mary Kathleen is no longer considered an economic uranium mine, it does have a resource of minerals known as rare earths which are used in consumer technology products such as smartphones and tablet computers.

The remaining uranium could be mined in conjunction with the rare earths.

Queensland Mines Minister Andrew Cripps said a new uranium mine at Ben Lomond would fall under a rigorous standard that was the best in the world.

The State Government said new approvals for uranium mining would be based on a system to ensure remediation of mine sites.

A spokeswoman for the minister said any restart of activity at the abandoned Mary Kathleen mine would require a rigorous environmental assessment by the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection.

So far the Government's survey has found only 10 potential deposits in Queensland, but it claimed any new uranium mine would probably employ about 700 people and cost more than $300 million.

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