Atlas of Contaminated Sites

Notable case, Queenstown, Tasmania, Australia

Mount Lyell and the Queen and King rivers

A copper mine in western Tasmania that for a century discharged tailings and acid water into the Queen River and, through the King, into Macquarie Harbour: about 100 million tonnes of sulphidic tailings. Smelter fumes stripped the hills around Queenstown.

Status
Contained
Activity
since 1893
Media
sediment, surface water, soil
Kind of site
mining, smelter
  1. Area. No area given in the sources read. About 100 million tonnes of tailings lie on the banks and bed of the King River, down to the delta in Macquarie Harbour, whose mouth is at 42°11′35″S 145°21′13″E.

Contaminants

Metals

Other inorganics

Status

Contained

Since 1995 tailings have been held in dams instead of being discharged to the river. Acid water still reaches the Queen and King rivers from mine dewatering and run-off, however, and studies from 2015–2017 still report contaminated sediment. Mining has been suspended since the 2010s (Wikipedia, read in 2026).

Story

The Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company was formed on 29 March 1893 and worked for 101 years, producing more than a million tonnes of copper, 750 of silver and 45 of gold. Smelting on site ended in the 1960s. Throughout, tailings and slag went untreated into the Queen River, which runs through Queenstown and joins the King.

While the ore was processed by concentration, from 1922 to 1995, about 1.5 million tonnes of sulphidic tailings entered the river system each year. In all about 100 million tonnes settled on the banks and bed of the King and built a delta at its mouth in Macquarie Harbour. Sulphides exposed to air oxidise and generate metal-laden acid drainage.

After the company closed in 1994, the state of Tasmania and the federal Supervising Scientist ran a remediation research and demonstration programme, with a final report in 1997. The new operator, Copper Mines of Tasmania (from 1999 part of the Sterlite group, later Vedanta), reopened the mine in 1995 with tailings dams, ending discharge to the river.

Timeline

  1. 189329 March: the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company is formed.
  2. 1922Concentration of the ore begins, with tailings discharged to the river.
  3. 1994The company closes; the remediation research and demonstration programme begins.
  4. 1995Copper Mines of Tasmania reopens the mine with tailings dams: discharge to the river ends.
  5. 1997Final report of the remediation programme.

Remediation

  1. 1994research and demonstration programmeMount Lyell Remediation Research and Demonstration Program, run by the Supervising Scientist and Tasmania's environment department (1994–1997).
  2. 1995tailings damTailings dams in place of discharge to the Queen River.

From the literature

Species that acted on one of this site's contaminants in at least one study. The list is automatic and takes no account of this site's soil, concentrations or climate.

Plants

Fungi

Sources

  1. Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company, Wikipedia, 2026
  2. King River (Tasmania), Wikipedia, 2026
  3. Mount Lyell Remediation and Research and Demonstration Program, Wikipedia, 2026

Draft compiled from public sources, not yet reviewed.