Environmental Issues
The main long-term environmental impact of uranium mining is that posed by the large volumes of tailings, mining waste in the form of particularised sand, which remain on the minesite. Guidelines from the International Atomic Energy Agency describe the project area as particularly unsuitable for tailings storage. The original pit is now being used to store tailings.
Due to inadequate estimation of annual rainfall in the design phase, the mine has continued to suffer routine seasonal failure of the water management systems.
A mine closure model has been developed by the company and is provided for in the balance sheet to the value of over A$180 million. However opponents warn that this may be as little as one fifth of the final cost of rehabilitation. The rehabilitation plan has not been made public, and environmentalists warn that plans for further expansion will further widen the gap between needs and means for remediation of the mine site.
Read more about this topic: Ranger Uranium Mine
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