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Current groundwater quality conditions at the historic Rum Jungle mine site, Northern Australia

Tailings and Mine Waste Conference (2011 : Vancouver, B.C.); University of British Columbia. Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering

Rum Jungle was one of Australia’s first major uranium mines and produced approximately 3,500 tonnes of uranium in the 1950s but acid rock drainage (ARD) and heavy metal mobilization at the site have led to significant environmental impacts on groundwater and the East Finniss River. Recent studies have documented a deterioration of the site’s historic reclamation works and hence a worsening scenario in terms of environmental impact. Recent data reviews identified numerous gaps in the existing network of monitoring wells at the site and hence a series of additional wells was installed in late 2010. Data from these wells have significantly improved our understanding of the extent of ARD impact at the site and hence the focus of this paper is to provide an overview of current groundwater quality conditions at the mine site.[All papers were considered for technical and language appropriateness by the organizing committee.]

Text

2011-10-31

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/38488

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/