Mining proposals are polarising communities

Vanguard December 2011 p. 6
Nick G.

Two new iron ore mines proposed for South Australia have raised a raft of environmental concerns and exposed contradictions between rural residents and miners.

The first comes from a newly formed alliance of mining companies focussing on the Braemar region which runs about 250 kilometres west and south of Broken Hill. It is estimated that the combined projects will need investment capital of $7.5 billion, much of which is expected to be sourced from China.

The Braemar deposits are estimated at 40 billion tonnes, with up to 50 million tonnes expected to be mined annually.

The proposal requires significant infrastructure including a 50 Gigalitre desal plant and either a rail line to Pt Pirie or a slurry pipeline.

The desal plant seems to make a slurry pipe more of a possibility than rail haulage. If a pipe is constructed to carry water for mineral extraction from Spencers Gulf to the Braemar mines then it lessens the draw on water from the underground aquifers which pastoralists are desperate to maintain for their own purposes.

A slurry pipeline is cheaper to operate and employs fewer people than rail haulage operations, but it requires lots of water. The water is mixed with mineral concentrate near the mine and pumped to a port facility where a filter press is used to remove the water from the slurry prior to the concentrate being placed on board ships.

The technology is not unknown in Australia. The 85km Savage River Slurry Pipeline in Tasmania, built in 1967, was one of the first in the world.

Questions that need answers

Questions being asked by environmentalists include how the waste water from the slurry is to be treated, where and with what impact on local ecologies.

Questions are also being asked about the desal proposal. A spokesman for the miners conceded that a desalination plant in Spencer Gulf would be controversial, particularly because the proposed 100Gl/year plant proposed by BHP Billiton at Point Lowly near Whyalla would already be discharging brine into the gulf. There are minimal ocean currents in the Gulf and brine discharges threaten both the commercial fishing industry and tourism operators who bring recreational divers in during the giant cuttlefish breeding season.

More questions at Tumby Bay

The second proposal is for a magnetite mine near Tumby Bay on the western side of Spencer Gulf, about 45km north of Port Lincoln.

This is to be developed as a partnership between Chinese company Wuhan Iron and Steel Co. (60%) and Centrex Metals (40%). Centrex’s second and third largest shareholders are Wugang Australia Resources (wholly-owned by Wuhan Iron and Steel) and Baotou Iron and Steel, another Chinese state-owned enterprise.

Again, a desal plant and a slurry pipeline are part of the proposal.

Already there is a local group, Saving Our Sustainability, acting against the miners.

A spokesman for the group said “Their threat to the water holes, to the water supply, the underground water, the Tod River itself (a source of water for Port Lincoln and nearby towns) has yet to be addressed….Their long-term destruction to the water tables is irreparable if what our modelling is showing is going to happen.”

The SOS group says SA Water already struggles to maintain local supplies from underground aquifers and mining could tip the region over the edge.

“Mining is short-term, some mines only last 20 years. Is it worth risking the sustainability of the water supply for the whole peninsula for some commercial interests and for overseas export into China?” he said.

Sensitivities around these sorts of issues at the moment is such that the NSW-based Lock the Gate Alliance which is opposing coal seam gas expansion has given publicity and support to the Tumby Bay group.

Enthusiasm for the much-vaunted mining boom in South Australia is by no means universal. Contradictions arising from mining expansion provide both challenges and opportunities for our work amongst the people.