Rum Jungle uranium-copper mine

The deposit was found in 1949. The Australian government funded the mine and treatment plant to supply uranium oxide concentrate to the UK-US Combined Development Agency under a contract running from 1953 to 1962; the official opening was on 17 September 1954. The Commonwealth owned it through the Australian Atomic Energy Commission, and Territory Enterprises, a Rio Tinto group subsidiary, ran it. According to Wikipedia it produced 3,530 tonnes of uranium oxide and 20,000 tonnes of copper concentrate, from 863,000 tonnes of ore processed in all.

When it closed in April 1971 the site was left as it stood. The mineralisation is pyritic and about 1,500 mm of rain falls each year: the sulphides oxidise and release acid and metals into the East Branch of the Finniss. In 1974 fish communities in the affected reach were less diverse and less abundant than in unexposed reaches, and extensive fish kills were seen at the start of the wet season (Jeffree et al. 2001).

After a first attempt in 1977, a Commonwealth programme costing 16.2 million Australian dollars began in 1983: the dumps were reshaped and covered with clay and soil to reduce infiltration. Temperature measurements in one dump showed that pyrite oxidation had been greatly reduced or stopped (Harries and Ritchie 1987), and annual loads of sulphate, copper, zinc and manganese in the river fell by factors of 3–7, with fish communities recovering (Jeffree et al. 2001). A 2003 government survey, cited by Wikipedia, nevertheless found that the covers, designed to last at least a hundred years, had failed in under twenty.