Honeymoon mine assessment begins
BY JIM GREENCanadian company Southern Cross Resources has released its environment impact statement for the proposed Honeymoon uranium mine in north-east South Australia.
The operation involves four uranium deposits and mining approval is being sought initially for two deposits with an estimated 7900 tonnes of uranium oxide (compared to about 90,000 tonnes at the Jabiluka mine in the Northern Territory). The mine will employ 45 people (according to the Uranium Information Centre) or 200 people (according to Southern Cross Resources).
The company plans to use a controversial method to get the uranium: it will pump sulphuric acid into the underground aquifer to dissolve the uranium and extract the ore from the solution, and then pump the water back into the aquifer.
David Noonan from the Australian Conservation Foundation said, “Honeymoon uranium mine is a plan to pollute, it is a failed technology which has only been practised in Eastern Europe, resulting in intractable contamination of groundwater. They have no plan to rehabilitate the aquifer system at Honeymoon.”
Friends of the Earth and the Australian Conservation Foundation coordinated protests against the mine in Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide on June 7.
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