Lake Maitland uranium deposit

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The Lake Maitland uranium deposit is located on the dry-fallen salt lake Lake Maitland , approximately 100 km southeast of Wiluna in Western Australia . According to plans, the first active uranium mining in Western Australia should start in 2012, but the plans were not implemented. The deposit has been owned by Toro Energy since 2013 and the Australian Environmental Protection Agency approved the mining of uranium in the deposit since 2016.

Dismantling planning

The lake is home to the most developed uranium project in Western Australia, the Lake Maintland Uranium Project , which was driven by the Canadian company Mega Uranium and should start production in 2012. It was supposed to be the first active uranium mining project in Western Australia and it was intended to produce 750 tons of U 3 O 8 annually.

Uranium mining at Lake Maitland is one of three projects in Western Australia, in addition to the Centipede-Lake Way uranium deposit and the yeelirrie uranium project from BHP Billiton , which should start with the mining of uranium. The three dismantling projects are all located within 100 km of Wiluna.

Uranium mining project

Location map of the Wiluna-Leinster area

By 2008 the government of Western Australia had imposed a uranium mining ban, which was lifted by the Liberal Party after the Australian Labor Party was defeated. The Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia protested against this political decision . The local Aborigines criticized the government and demanded guarantees for their land and the animals living there. The projects led to protests by the Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia , which wants to prevent the dismantling.

The uranium deposit on Lake Maitland was discovered by Asarco Australia in 1972 . The deposit was explored to a small extent in the 1980s because of the divergent views of owners about the use of the deposit and changes in ownership.

After several drillings by Redford Ltd in 2005, this was taken over by Mega Uranium in December 2006, which carried out further drilling and explorations in the years 2007 to 2008. The mining site should benefit from the existing infrastructure of other mining operations in the region and is approximately 30 km north of the Bronzewing Gold Mine . The deposit should be operated for 10 years. The Japanese consortium Japan Australia Uranium Resources Development Co (JAURD) held 35% of the shares in Mega Uranium . JAURD is owned by the Japanese power companies Kansai Electric Power , Kyushu Electric Power and Shikoku Electric Power , which jointly operate nuclear power plants in Japan.

In 2013, the Australian company Toro Energy took over the uranium deposit from Mega Uranium for 37 million dollars with no concrete plans for commissioning and offered JAURD to re-enter as a strategic partner. In mid-2016, Toro Energy received approval from the Australian Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine uranium for the Lake Maitland uranium deposit as an extension of the 2012 approval for the Centipede Lake Way uranium deposit, and Toro announced in early 2017 Energy announced the early start of uranium mining in the Wiluna area. In June 2017, the government of Western Australia decided to ban uranium mining, but had to exclude the ongoing and confirmed projects and give them a five-year window to start mining.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Michael Lampard: Uranium Outlook to 2013-14 . In: Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics . Archived from the original on October 13, 2009. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 15, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.abareconomics.com
  2. ↑ perthnow.com.au : Great science debates of the next decade: Spotlight on uranium, February 1, 2010, accessed February 15, 2011
  3. ↑ a b Toro gets approval for uranium project The Sydney Morning Herald, January 7, 2010, accessed February 15, 2011
  4. ↑ Toro gets WA nod for uranium project adelaidenow.com.au, January 7, 2010, accessed April 28, 2011
  5. ^ Mining Projects website of the Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia, accessed on February 17, 2011
  6. ↑ BHP under fire over uranium plans at AGM : ABC Rural of November 17, 2011, accessed February 17, 2011
  7. ↑ perthnow.com.au BHP bosses grilled at AGM in Perth on November 16, 2010, accessed April 28, 2011
  8. ↑ anawa.org.au : Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia website, accessed February 15, 2011
  9. ↑ a b Lake Maitland website of Mega Uranium, accessed February 15, 2011
  10. ↑ Lake Maitland Uranium Deposit ( Memento of the original from October 23, 1999 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. The Sustainable Energy & Anti-Uranium Service website, accessed February 15, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sea-us.org.au
  11. ↑ a b Japan's nuclear sector takes uranium stake The Age, March 2, 2009, accessed February 15, 2011
  12. ↑ Toro Energy to acquire Lake Maitland uranium project in Western Australia at mining-technology.com, August 11, 2013; accessed on November 22, 2019.
  13. ↑ Sam Tomlin: Environmental approval for Western Australia's most advanced uranium mine on abc.net.au, September 6, 2016; accessed on November 22, 2019.
  14. ↑ Jarrod Lucas: Toro Energy's Wiluna uranium mine in Goldfields gets green light from WA Government on abc.net.au, January 9, 2017; accessed on November 22, 2019.
  15. ↑ Rebecca Turner: Uranium firms bullish on five-year window to develop WA mines on abc.net.au, June 21, 2017; accessed on November 22, 2019.

Coordinates: 27 ° 10 ′ 0 ″  S , 121 ° 5 ′ 0 ″  E