PIRSA Minerals

Jump to content

 

Navigation

 

Radium Hill Mine - 1961 to Present

Radium Hill tailings dam. (circa 1957)
Radium Hill tailings dam. (circa 1957)
(larger .jpeg image ~ 100kb)

 

Radium Hill treatment building and headframe. (circa 1955)
Radium Hill treatment building and headframe. (circa 1955)
(larger .jpeg image ~ 100kb)

 

Installation of monitoring bores (2006)
Installation of monitoring bores. (2006)
(larger .jpeg image ~ 100kb)

 

Radium Hill mine area, remaining ore bins. (2005)
Radium Hill mine area, remaining ore bins. (2005)
(larger .jpeg image ~ 100kb)

 

Radium Hill pioneers cemetery (2005)
Radium Hill pioneers cemetery. (2005)
(larger .jpeg image ~ 100kb)

Following closure of the site in 1961, much of the infrastructure and buildings were dismantled and/or removed, together with some remedial measures considered suitable for the day being undertaken. This largely involved the backfilling of a number of the mine openings, and possibly (although not verified) minor armouring of the main tailings impoundment at the same time.

In 1981, a decision was made to rehabilitate the impoundments with a cover of soil using material from four adjacent borrow pits. The earthworks required for this were managed and completed by the former South Australian Engineering and Water Supply Department. Approximately 75 000 m3 of material was used during construction of the covers.

In the same year, an area ‘Reserved for purposes of a repository for low-level radioactive materials’ was gazetted. This repository received approximately 16 separate consignments of low-level radioactive waste from that time until the last deposit in 1998.

Following the decommissioning period, a number of exploration companies have been active in the area, generally in pursuit of minerals other than uranium. In addition, some minor testing of the tailings material has been carried out to determine quantities of rare earth elements (REE) and the potential extraction of these minerals.

The site is a registered premise under the Radiation Protection and Control Act 1982 (RPC Act); a certificate of registration has been issued for the site by the Environment Protection Authority, which includes a number of conditions. These conditions are aimed towards the development of an appropriate overall long-term management plan.

Little remains today of the 1954-61 uranium-mining period or earlier radium extraction operations other than a number of foundations, infrastructure remnants, tailings impoundment and some waste rock and heavy media reject piles.