Four Mile is Australia's fifth

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

mine. It is sited in the Frome Basin in far north of the state of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

, around north of the state capital,

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

. It is from the existing

Beverley uranium mine The Beverley Mine is Australia's third uranium mine and Australia's first operating in-situ recovery mine. It is located in South Australia in the gazetted locality of Wooltana about 35 km from Lake Frome at the northern end of the Flinder ...

, where its uranium oxide product is produced. Construction of the mine commenced in late 2013 and the mine was officially opened in June 2014. Prior to opening, it was claimed that Four Mile would become the tenth-largest uranium mine in the world.

Mine

Four Mile is the fifth uranium mine in Australia. The deposit was first discovered in 2005"SA's newest uranium mine"
Roxby Downs Sun, South Australia (2014-07-03). Retrieved 2014-07-03. and is the largest uranium discovery in Australia since 1990. In June 2009, Alliance Resources announced that the deposit contained of

uranium oxide Uranium oxide is an oxide of the element uranium. The metal uranium forms several oxides: * Uranium dioxide or uranium(IV) oxide (UO2, the mineral uraninite or pitchblende) * Diuranium pentoxide or uranium(V) oxide (U2O5) * Uranium trioxide o ...

and the ore was graded at ten times that of Olympic Dam mine and double that of the Ranger mine in the Northern Territory. The mine life is expected to be at least 15 years. The mine began as a joint venture between Quasar Resources Pty Ltd, who owned 75 per cent of the project and Alliance Resources Ltd, who owned the remaining 25 per cent. Quasar Resources is affiliated with Heathgate Resources Pty Ltd, owner and operator of the nearby Beverley mine and processing plant where the liquor from the mine is treated to extract the uranium. The mine uses an

in-situ leach In-situ leaching (ISL), also called in-situ recovery (ISR) or solution mining, is a mining process used to recover minerals such as copper and uranium through boreholes drilled into a deposit, ''in situ''. In situ leach works by artificially disso ...

process, which involves pumping a weak acid solution into the formation to dissolve the uranium-bearing ore. The ore-bearing solution is then pumped to the surface for extraction and treatment. This method was chosen to allow the mine to commence operations relatively quickly. The developers of the mine originally planned for the mine to be operational in the first quarter of 2010 and stated that it would produce of uranium oxide per year. However, ongoing legal disputes between the joint venture partners led to delays. The mine was officially opened by the South Australian Premier

Jay Weatherill Jay Wilson Weatherill (born 3 April 1964) is an Australian politician who was the 45th Premier of South Australia, serving from 21 October 2011 until 19 March 2018. Weatherill represented the House of Assembly seat of Cheltenham as a member of ...

and Treasurer

Tom Koutsantonis Anastasious "Tom" Koutsantonis is an Australian politician in the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party, representing the seats of West Torrens (2002−current) and Peake (1997−2002) as a Labor member in the South Australian ...

on 28 June 2014. In September 2015, the sale of Alliance's stake in the mine was completed, transferring full ownership to Quasar Resources.

Approval

Approval for the mine was granted by the Australian Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts.

Peter Garrett Peter Robert Garrett (born 16 April 1953) is an Australian musician, environmentalist, activist and former politician. In 1973, Garrett became the lead singer of the Australian rock band Midnight Oil. As a performer he is known for his signa ...

, on 14 July 2009; the first such mine approved by an

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms t ...

(ALP) government since the abolition of its " three-mine policy" on uranium mines at the party national conference in 2007. Announcing the decision, Minister Garrett stated he was "certain this operation poses no credible risk to the environment". The approval was supported by South Australian Premier

Mike Rann Michael David Rann, , (born 5 January 1953) is an Australian former politician who was the 44th premier of South Australia from 2002 to 2011. He was later Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2013 to 2014, and Australian am ...

. The decision to approve the mine was supported by the Australian Uranium Association (AUA). The executive director of the AUA claimed to be "heartened" by the decision, saying that the decision "tells he industrythat if we continue to meet those high environmental standards, which the (Environment) Minister himself applies, then we will be able to continue to expand". The

Australian Workers' Union The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) is one of Australia's largest and oldest trade unions. It traces its origins to unions founded in the pastoral and mining industries in the 1880s and currently has approximately 80,000 members. It has exer ...

also supported the decision with national secretary

Paul Howes Paul Howes (born 23 August 1981) was involved in the Australian trade union movement from 1999 through 2014. His most recent position was as National Secretary of the Australian Workers' Union, the youngest person to serve in that position. In ...

saying it "represents a significant win for Australia's resource industry" and that it will " roviderevenue for that state's coffers and opportunities to create good, well-paid Australian jobs." Opposition to the proposal was voiced by the

Australian Conservation Foundation The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) is Australia's national environmental organisation, launched in 1965 in response to a proposal by the World Wide Fund for Nature for a more co-ordinated approach to sustainability. One high-profil ...

(ACF) who are concerned that the decision represents a relaxation of environmental standards. The ACF have specifically raised their concerns about possible contamination of

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated ...

from mine operations. A

traditional owner Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...

from the

Adnyamathanha The Adnyamathanha (Pronounced: ) are a contemporary Aboriginal Australian people of the northern Flinders Ranges, South Australia, formed as an aggregate of several distinct peoples. Strictly speaking the ethnonym Adnyamathanha was an alternativ ...

people has also expressed unhappiness with the approval, comparing it to the " stolen generation" practises of past Australian governments. The Government of South Australia provided the project with State environmental approval in August 2013."New uranium mine slated for South Australia"
''Mining Australia'', 2013-08-22.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Four Mile Uranium Mine Solution mines in Australia Far North (South Australia) Uranium mines in South Australia

Mine

Approval

See also

References

External links