Heathgate Resources

Beverley is 35 kilometres north-west of Lake Frome in northern South Australia, approximately 530 kilometres north-north-east of Adelaide and 100 kilometres east of Leigh Creek.

How big is it?

(a) Reserves
The Beverley orebody is a localised resource of about 21,000 tonnes of uranium oxide contained in the sands of a riverbed that became isolated and buried by rock and sediments more than 40 million years ago.

(b) Dimensions
It is principally contained in three zones, each at a depth of 110 to 140 metres.

The three zones are contained within an area 4 km long by 500 metres wide .

What is annual production?

At full production, 2 million pounds of uranium oxide - about 1,000 tonnes - a year.

What will the mine life be?

15 to 30 years.

In world terms where does Beverley rank?

Beverley is very much a world class deposit, with 21,000 tonnes (46 million pounds) of uranium. The average ISL mine in the United States, for example, is less than 10 million pounds.

What visual impact has it had?

The Beverley orebody is being mined by the In Situ Leach process, which is significantly different to open pit or underground mining.

ISL mines have many advantages over traditional mines because they have:

minimal surface disturbance;
no ore exposure;
no overburden and waste rock dumps;
no massive tailing dams; and
greatly reduced radiation exposure to workers and the community at large

The operation consists of a processing plant, relatively small evaporation ponds and a wellfield, which essentially is a series of water bores. Some are injection bores, while other are extraction bores. All are linked to the plant by pipelines. The most visible elements are the plant, which is about the size of a large shed, the camp and the airstrip.

The only evidence of the operating wellfield is:

the well heads;
wellfield header houses, which are about the size of a two-car garage;
the pipelines, which are be visually intrusive in terms of the local landscape; and
access roads

There are no pits or shafts, no holes in the ground as at open pit mines, no overburden dumps or ore stockpiles, no tailings dams, no smelter or refinery and no permanently visible change to the terrain.

What environmental impact is the mine having?

(a) The lease area
The Beverley lease is located in an area of Mitchell Grass plains quite characteristic of between 4000 and 5000 square kilometres of grazing land between Lake Frome and the Flinders Ranges. Much of this land - and the Beverley mine area is no different - has a history of very heavy grazing.

The lease covers about 8 square kilometres of that area and the orebody about 3 square kilometres. At any one time, those sections of the orebody that are being mined cover less than half of one square kilometre.

(b) Early exploration
Although the area was explored extensively during the late 1960's and early 1970's, there is little trace of that work now. That is a good indication of the landscape's resilience.

(c) The ISL process
The ISL process is a controllable, environmentally-friendly method of mining. It involves minimal surface impact, while the ore is contained in a highly saline, radioactive and isolated aquifer that was of no use before mining began and is unlikely to be used for any purpose other than mining.

At the end of the mine's life the aquifer will still be unusable for any other purpose, but a significant portion of the uranium will have been removed. The aquifer will contain some residual chemicals used in the extraction process and will have a slightly lower pH (in the vicinity of 4.5 - 5.0) than its natural state (6.3).

However, in all other senses it will be the same. It will still be isolated, highly saline and radioactive.

Why is it being mined now?

Global population is predicted to double to 5 billion by the middle of the 21st century and consumer demand for electricity - particularly in eastern Europe and eastern Asia - is set to more than double.

That will lead to increasing dependence on nuclear power, according to the Uranium Information Centre in Melbourne and the Uranium Institute in London.

Fossil fuels supply about 85 percent of primary energy world-wide but in doing so they contribute 25 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually. The only way to avoid an increase in the greenhouse effect and global warming is to lessen the world's dependence on fossil fuels and nuclear power can do that. Nuclear power stations do not emit carbon dioxide - or any other air pollutants for that matter.

Already about 17 per cent of the world's energy is generated by 440 nuclear power plants in 32 countries. Belgium, France and Sweden meet between 51 per cent and 75 per cent of their total electricity needs from nuclear power. In countries such as Finland, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and the UK the figures are between 25 per cent and 37 per cent. In the United States, nuclear power stations generate 22 per cent of total electricity requirements.

Over recent years there has been an oversupply of uranium because of supplies held in stockpiles, but these are now being reduced because power utilities need more uranium than is being mined. The gap between what is mined and what is needed has been met from these international inventories, but significant reductions in inventories will occur over the next few years and that has created an opportunity for new mines.

The Uranium Information Centre reports that uranium production in 1999 totalled 36,000 tonnes, while consumption totalled 76,000 tonnes.