Lake Way is a dry saline lake located in the

Mid West The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

region of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

, approximately south of Wiluna. It also gives its name to a nearby

cattle station In Australia and New Zealand, a cattle station is a large farm ( station is equivalent to the American ranch), the main activity of which is the rearing of cattle. The owner of a cattle station is called a '' grazier''. The largest cattle stat ...

, the Lake Way Station.

Description

The lake, dry except during exceptional floods such as occurred in

1900 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15), 2 ...

, 1942, 1963, repeatedly from 1992 to 2001 and in 2006, runs roughly parallel to the

Leinster Leinster ( ; ga, Laighin or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, situated in the southeast and east of Ireland. The province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige. Following the 12th-century Norman invasion of ...

-Wiluna road, which is part of the

Goldfields Highway Goldfields Highway is a generally northwest–southeast highway in central Western Australia which links the Great Northern Highway at Meekatharra with Coolgardie-Esperance Highway south of Kalgoorlie. The highway is approximately in length ...

. The lake is the site of one of the most advanced uranium mining projects in Western Australia, the Centipede–Lake Way project, which is pursued by Toro Energy. Toro Energy has acquired the

Lake Maitland uranium project Lake Maitland is a dry lake, dry salt lake located approximately south east of Wiluna, Western Australia, Wiluna, in the Mid West (Western Australia), Mid West region of Western Australia. Mining project The Lake Maitland mine, Lake Maitland ...

and in 2010 proposed to operate both projects.

Mining

Gold

The lake has been the site of an open-pit gold mining operation, which was part of the Wiluna Gold Mine. The ''Williamson'' pit, located within the lake and accessed through a causeway, was mined from 2005 to 2007, but the pit only contained low grade ore of approximately 1.75 g/t. After initial high expectations and reported grades of up to 25 g/t, the operation was a disappointment, with less-than-expected production. The open pit was also the site of a fatal mining accident in July 2005.2006 Annual report
Agincourt ASX announcement, published: 17 October 2006, accessed: 13 February 2011 Agincourt Resources, the owner of the mine at the time, spun off its uranium exploration by forming Nova Energy in April 2005. After the takeover of Agincourt through

Oxiana Limited Oxiana Limited was an Australian copper and gold miner and exploration company. History Oxiana was founded in 1932 as Golden Plateau and listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. In the early 1980s, the company shifted its focus from gold mining ...

, Nova Energy became part of Toro Energy in August 2007.

Uranium mining project

The six-year Western Australian ban on uranium mining was lifted in 2008, after the 2008 state elections, which saw the

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 ...

replaced in government by the

Liberal Party of Australia The Liberal Party of Australia is a centre-right political party in Australia, one of the two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-left Australian Labor Party. It was founded in 1944 as the successor to the United Au ...

. Two uranium mining projects in the state were expected to begin production by 2012-13, the U₃O₈ Lake Maitland project, located at

Lake Maitland Lake Maitland is a dry salt lake located approximately south east of Wiluna, in the Mid West region of Western Australia. Mining project The Lake Maitland project was being pursued by Canadian company Mega Uranium. Mega teamed up with Au ...

, pursued by Mega Uranium, and the U₃O₈ Centipede–Lake Way project undertaken by Toro Energy. The uranium mining projects in Western Australia have attracted opposition from organisations like the Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia, which have attempted to put a hold on them before they reach active mining stage. Uranium mining at Lake Way is not a new project but dates back to 1978, when it was first proposed by the Wyoming Mineral Corporation and Delhi International Oil. In 1982, the Australian Government granted Delhi International permission to develop the mine, but the project was suspended in the following year.Lake Way Uranium Deposit
The Sustainable Energy & Anti-Uranium Service website, accessed: 13 February 2011 Mining would have been carried out in the form of small open pits, spread over nine square kilometres. Current mining activities at Lake Way are scheduled to be carried out at two locations, at the ''Lake Way'' deposit at the northern end of the lake and the ''Centipede'' deposit on the southwestern side of the lake. Toro plans to extract the uranium oxide through a heap leach process, with an annual production of and a mine life of 10 years. In February 2010, Toro received advice from the Western Australian Minister for Environment, Donna Faragher, that the government had dismissed an appeal against the level of environmental assessment protocols for the Wiluna project. Previous to that, the government granted approval for a resource evaluation test pit at Lake Way, with the trial also receiving approval from the native title holders.Toro gets approval for uranium project
''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'', published: 7 January 2010, accessed: 13 February 2011 Following this, in May 2010, Toro carried out an eight-week operation of a test pit. Western Australian MP Robin Chapple queried why radioactive uranium oxide and ore was still lying around unburied and unfenced at Lake Way in 2010, after an earlier question on the same subject had been raised in 2000. The

Department of Mines and Petroleum The Department of Mines and Petroleum was a department of the Government of Western Australia until it was superseded by the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety on 1 July 2017.

confirmed the material as naturally occurring uranium-bearing rock through laboratory testing.URANIUM MINE, LAKE WAY

Western Australian Parliament The Parliament of Western Australia is the bicameralism, bicameral legislature of the Australian states and territories of Australia, state of Western Australia, forming the legislative branch of the Government of Western Australia. The parliam ...

website, published: 16 September 2010, accessed: 13 February 2011

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

Names Search Results - Lake Way

Geoscience Australia Geoscience Australia is an agency of the Australian Government. It carries out geoscientific research. The agency is the government's technical adviser on all aspects of geoscience, and custodian of the geographic and geological data and knowle ...

website
MINEDEX website
Database of the

Toro Energy website
Way, Lake Uranium mining in Western Australia Wiluna, Western Australia