Continuing pollution from the Rum Jungle U-Cu project: a critical evaluation of environmental monitoring and rehabilitation

Abstract

The former Rum Jungle uranium-copper project, Australia, is an internationally important case study on environmental pollution from and rehabilitation of mining. The Rum Jungle mining project is briefly reviewed, followed by a critical evaluation of monitoring data and pollution loads prior to and after rehabilitation - leading to the conclusion that rehabilitation has clearly failed the test of time after just two decades. The most critical findings are the need to understand pollution cycles holistically, and designing monitoring regimes to match, explicit inclusion of radiological criteria (lacking in original planning), and finally the need to set targets based on environmental criteria. Two examples include polluted groundwater which was excluded from rehabilitation and the poor design, construction and/or performance of engineered soil covers - both leading to increasing acid drainage impacts on the Finniss River. The critical review therefore presents a valuable case study of the environmental performance of uranium mine site rehabilitation.