USGS Map of Northern Territory Uranium Mines

The Nabarlek Mine is a

uranium mine Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the ground. Over 50 thousand tons of uranium were produced in 2019. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia were the top three uranium producers, respectively, and together account f ...

in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

which was productively worked only in 1979. The deposit sits within the

Alligator Rivers Alligator Rivers is the name of an area in an Arnhem Land region of the Northern Territory of Australia, containing three rivers, the East, West, and South Alligator Rivers. It is regarded as one of the richest biological regions in Australia, ...

Uranium Field approximately northeast of

Jabiru The jabiru ( or ; ''Jabiru mycteria'') is a large stork found in the Americas from Mexico to Argentina, except west of the Andes. It sometimes wanders into the United States, usually in Texas, but has been reported as far north as Mississippi. ...

. It was discovered by Queensland Mines Limited in 1970 by following up an intense airborne

radiometric Radiometry is a set of techniques for measuring electromagnetic radiation, including visible light. Radiometric techniques in optics characterize the distribution of the radiation's power in space, as opposed to photometric techniques, which cha ...

anomaly.

History

Discovery and financial implications

Prospecting rights over the future mine were first obtained by Gwendolyne Stevens, a South Australian sheep farmer who had developed an interest in geology. She obtained rights over of the

Oenpelli Gunbalanya (also spelt Kunbarlanja, and historically referred to as Oenpelli) is an Aboriginal Australian town in west Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia, about east of Darwin. The main language spoken in the community is Kunw ...

Aboriginal reserve and named the area "

nabarlek Nabarleks (''Petrogale concinna''), are a tiny species of macropod found in northern Australia. They are a shy and nocturnal animal that resides in rocky hollows and forages in the surrounding area. Their diet is grasses, sedges, and ferns foun ...

" after a local marsupial species. She negotiated an exploration program with Queensland Mines Limited, a subsidiary of Kathleen Investments Limited which owned the Mary Kathleen uranium mine in Queensland. Both companies were publicly listed, although Kathleen Investments was majority-owned by the

Rio Tinto Zinc Corporation Consolidated Zinc was an Australian mining company from 1905 to 1962. History The company's initial operations focused on extracting zinc from mine tailings of the Broken Hill Ore Deposit at Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia. The company w ...

(RTZ). In early 1970, Queensland Mines began

costean Costeaning is the process by which miners seek to discover metallic lodes. It consists in sinking small pits through the superficial deposits to the solid rock, and then driving from one pit to another across the direction of the vein Veins are ...

ing Nabarlek, revealing visible deposits of

pitchblende Uraninite, formerly pitchblende, is a radioactive, uranium-rich mineral and ore with a chemical composition that is largely UO2 but because of oxidation typically contains variable proportions of U3O8. Radioactive decay of the uranium causes t ...

. One sample was found to contain 72 percent uranium oxide, compared with averages of 0.1 percent on some American and Canadian mines. News of the positive results soon leaked, and on 1 September the company's chairman Roy Hudson announced an estimated yield of 55,000 tonnes of uranium oxide at an average

grade Grade most commonly refers to: * Grade (education), a measurement of a student's performance * Grade, the number of the year a student has reached in a given educational stage * Grade (slope), the steepness of a slope Grade or grading may also ref ...

of per tonne. This sent the Queensland Mines share price to a peak of $46, up from $12 at the start of the year. It was widely reported that Nabarlek was the richest uranium deposit in the world. In August 1971, the technical committee of QML revised its estimated yield for Nabarlek to 9,000 tonnes, leading to calls for the resignation of Hudson and a steep fall in the share price. This in turn led to the collapse of investment house Mineral Securities Limited in 1972 and contributed to the insolvency of

Patrick Corporation Patrick Corporation is an Australian seaport operator with operations in Brisbane, Fremantle, Melbourne and Sydney. Formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, it is owned by Brookfield Asset Management and Qube Holdings. History ...

in 1975, both of which had made considerable investments at higher prices. Finance journalist

Trevor Sykes Trevor William Sykes (born 14 September 1937) is an Australian finance journalist who until his retirement in 2005 wrote the Pierpont column in the Australian Financial Review ''The Australian Financial Review'' (abbreviated to the ''AFR'' ...

has described this situation as analogous to the

Poseidon bubble The Poseidon bubble was a stock market bubble in which the price of Australian mining shares soared in late 1969, then crashed in early 1970. It was triggered by the discovery by Poseidon Nickel of the early indications of a promising nickel d ...

of 1970. In May 1973, the original licence-holder Gwendolyne Stevens transferred her rights to Queensland Mines in exchange for a royalty agreement. She died of a cerebral haemorrhage in March 1974.

Relations with Indigenous landholders

The proposed mine site was located from an

Aboriginal sacred site Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

known as Gabo Djang, associated with

the Dreaming The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal beliefs. It was originally used by Francis Gillen, quickly adopted by his co ...

related to the green ant. The

traditional owners 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 ...

of Nabarlek consequently opposed the mine. QML initially offered $7,425 in exchange for the mineral rights, which by 1974 had grown to a package of $891,000 in cash plus a royalty valued at $13.6 million, which was rejected.

Mining

Open cut mining Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of mining ...

eventually took place between June and October 1979 with the ore stockpiled for milling. 546,437 t of ore were mined at an average grade of 1.84% U₃O₈. The mill commenced operation in June 1980 and ran until 1988, during which time 11,084 t U₃O₈ were produced. A survey in 2006 concluded that revegetation had failed. Rehabilitation work is continuing.

History

Discovery and financial implications

Relations with Indigenous landholders

Mining

See also

References

Further reading