Greenland’s pollution danger, now that uranium mining possible, due to climate change

“Uranium mining at Kuannersuit (Kvanefjeldet) will leave behind millions of tonnes of tailings containing some of the most toxic radioactive substances,” wrote Mikkel Myrup, the chairman of Avataq, an environmental watchdog group. ”The waste will remain radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years and in the long term, the mining could cause comprehensive radioactive contamination, which—because of the health risks—would make it dangerous to live in and make it necessary to ban fishing, hunting, agriculture and animal husbandry in significant parts of Southern Greenland.”

Greenland Has Melted So Much That We Can Mine It for Uranium Now Motherboard, By Brian Merchant 28 Oct 13, Climate change has finally melted enough of Greenland to allow mining companies to exploit its natural resources. And it’s got a lot. The remote, increasingly well-named island nation has a payload of uranium and rare earth elements buried beneath its quickly-thinning ice sheets.

Last year, nearly 97 percent of Greenland’s ice cover melted during the summer. That hadn’t happened for 123 years. And while big melts like that are thought to happen from time to time, scientists think Greenland is melting six times faster than it would have if humans didn’t load the atmosphere up with coal and oil pollution. Clearly, not everyone is disappointed with the result.

As with the other major industries circling the warming Arctic like a vulture—oil and shipping companies being the biggest—mining corporations have long licked their chops at the prospect of digging into Greenland’s untapped mineral reserves……

Greenland’s parliament just voted to allow Australia and China to start mining away. The vote was as close as they come: 15 for, 14 against, with the common call for jobs and economic growth winning out over immense environmental concerns.

“We cannot live with unemployment and cost-of-living increases while our economy is at a standstill. It is therefore necessary that we eliminate zero tolerance towards uranium now,” Greenland’s prime minister, Aleqa Hammond told a local paper. Hammond’s pro-growth plan won out over a plea from 48 NGOs that signed a statement calling for the no-uranium rule to be upheld.

“Uranium mining at Kuannersuit (Kvanefjeldet) will leave behind millions of tonnes of tailings containing some of the most toxic radioactive substances,” wrote Mikkel Myrup, the chairman of Avataq, an environmental watchdog group. ”The waste will remain radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years and in the long term, the mining could cause comprehensive radioactive contamination, which—because of the health risks—would make it dangerous to live in and make it necessary to ban fishing, hunting, agriculture and animal husbandry in significant parts of Southern Greenland.”

Alas, the mining is going forward, radioactive byproducts in the pristine sea or no. Chinese and Australian companies will be first through the gates, as the former has a stranglehold on the rare earth mining industry. So now, as more and more of Greenland’s ice sheet drains away every year, so will the possibilities to halt the resource extraction rush.

It won’t be years until these operations get off the ground—and by the time they do, who knows what treasures Greenland’s receding ice-line may have revealed? Whatever it is, we’ll be sure to harvest it for profit, dumping our hazardous byproduct into the once-icy waters we’ve since turned to slush. http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/enough-of-greenland-has-melted-to-let-china-mine-it-for-uranium

Extreme weather played havoc with ERA’s uranium mining – its future indefinite

Toxic year for ERA unlikely to get better, SMH, Peter Ker, February 2, 2012 THE struggling uranium miner Energy Resources Australia has underwhelmed the market with its production forecasts, raising fears its poor year last year could continue into this one.
The stock plunged almost 14 per cent yesterday after the company, majority owned by Rio Tinto, revealed a $153.6 million loss for the year to December 31. The result, despite being 427 per cent worse than the previous year, came as no surprise. The company’s Ranger mine was shut down for much of last year, and a massive depreciation of assets had already been
announced in August.
The bigger surprise for the market came when ERA forecast production of between 3000 and 3700 tonnes of uranium oxide this year, well below the 4100 tonnes forecast by analysts at Goldman Sachs.
Production figures at Ranger are highly dependent on the weather. Water management problems during the Northern Territory’s wet season often cause interruptions.
There was record rainfall in December, and ERA warned that its underwhelming production forecasts could be further affected if bad weather returned.
The ERA board has approved spending of $220 million on a brine concentrator, which will help mitigate its water problems. ERA’s future rests on hopes of finding uranium deposits beneath the Ranger open cut and turning it into an underground mine. Investors will have to wait until 2014 before knowing if the project, known as Ranger Deeps, will proceed.
ERA shares fell 21¢ to $1.33 yesterday….. Hopes that Rio Tinto will come to the rescue of another ASX-listed
uranium company, Extract Resources, appear dashed after Rio sold a strategic investment to state-owned Chinese interests.  http://www.smh.com.au/business/toxic-year-for-era-unlikely-to-get-better-20120201-1qtgb.html#ixzz1lFkRZG00

Ranger uranium mine in danger of floods

Australia’s ERA warns rains to hit uranium output again SYDNEY, Jan 12 (Reuters) – Energy Resources of Australia warned on Thursday that recent flooding caused by monsoon rains in northern Australia will continue to restrict its production of uranium in 2012.

Production at the company’s Ranger mine — which in previous years supplied as much as 10 percent of the world’s uranium — was halted by heavy rains in early in 2011 and did not resume until mid-June.

A second deluge in December that dumped record rains across parts of the tropical Northern Territory meant ERA would be unable to readily mine richer ores at the bottom of the lode, it said.

“As a result, access to the high grade ore located at the bottom of the pit will be delayed and is highly dependent on rainfall
experienced for the remainder of the 2011/2012 wet season,” said ERA, 68 percent owned by Rio Tinto but separately listed on the Australian bourse….. Analyst are expecting the company to show a loss on earnings before interest and tax of around A$61 million against a profit of A$68.4 million in 2010.

The stock has plummeted more than 80 percent in the last 12 months, in part due to negative sentiment toward uranium companies following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan last March…..
http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFL3E8CB8ZU20120111?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0

Flooding affects uranium mines in Namibia

Namibia Q2 uranium production down | Industrial Fuels and Power August 30th, 2011 NewsroomUranium production in Namibia decreased from 2.35mlb to 2.09mlb in the second quarter of 2011 when compared with the previous quarter.“This was largely due to adverse weather conditions, with some of the mines becoming flooded with the abnormally heavy rains seen this year,” financial group Capricorn Investment Holdings said.Namibia’s uranium is produced by Rio Tinto and Australia’s Paladin Energy.
Namibia Q2 uranium production down | Industrial Fuels and Power

Kakadu National Park will be under continued threat from radioactive spills from Ranger uranium mine

The Ausralian newspaper covered the very drastic threat now posed to Kakadu National Park by by flooding and sea level rises.

These climate changes mean that Kakadu is further threatened by radioactive waste leaks from theRanger uranium mine.

ERA’s uranium mine is surely no longer viable, and it is high time that RioTinto closed it down permanently and stopped this charade of  Northern Territory uranium mining having an economic future – Christina Macpherson

Kakadu treasures ‘at mercy’ of climate-change floods * Sid Maher : The Australian * June 03, 2011 KAKADU faces more flooding and a loss of freshwater flora and fauna as a result of sea-level rises caused by climate change.

A report released yesterday by the Climate Change Department predicts that over the next 20 to 60 years, there will be more large floods on the South Alligator River, which is in Kakadu National Park.

The predictions are based on models predicting 143mm of sea-level rise by 2030 and 700mm of sea-level rise by 2070…… Kakadu treasures ‘at mercy’ of climate-change floods | The Australian

Uranium enrichment releases greenhouse gases

The radiative properties of CFCs make them a dangerous global warming agent — 1,500 times more potent than carbon dioxide, according to EPA figures. Ozone-depleting CFCs have been banned in the U.S. except in the processing of uranium ore.

As U.S. Moves Ahead with Nuclear Power, No Solution for Radioactive Waste, Solve Climate News, By Abby LubyMar 3, 2011.”…….Some observers have challenged the sector’s clean energy claims, however, especially when considering the entire nuclear fuel cycle and its impact on global warming.
According to the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC), which runs the only U.S.-owned uranium enrichment facility in Paducah, Kentucky, the enrichment cycle releases 300,000 pounds, or 150 tons, of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) into the atmosphere yearly.

Rainfall patterns bad news for Northern Territory uranium mining

Rainfalls hamper Uranium mine efficiency in Australia | Seer Press, 16 July 2010, Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) admits the high rainfall levels coupled with a slip of a pit wall have significantly hampered their production capacity. A subsidiary of the RIO Tinto, ERA predicts a possible reduction of their volume of produce this year, the lowest ever in the past decade.Last year, a pit slip occurred in ERA’s Ranger Mine in Kakadu National Park denying the miner access to high grade ore. Yesterday’s full-year production volume is only around 4300 to 4700 tonnes of uranium, 18 percent lower compared to previous record of 5240 tonnes…………Both the continuing work on unstable pit wall conditions and the high rainfall level are considered to be the major factors affecting the decline of production volumes by the ERA. The high rainfall actually brings water pooling in the mine preventing miners from getting into the bottom of the mine pit………..With the reduced production volume, ERA is estimated receive an 8 million dollar profit decline for the first half of the year.

Expanded Olympic Dam uranium mine will cause huge greenhouse gases

“All of our efforts to reduce emissions, to conserve energy, will be undone by just one company, one project” The Advertiser DAVID NOONAN, 20 Jan 2010

The science of climate change demands action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. BHP Billiton’s proposed new open-pit mine at Roxby Downs would blow out SA’s greenhouse gas emissions by more than 12 per cent.

BHP failing on greenhouse gases, energy, water overuse

BHP green efforts behind schedule
The Age MATHEW MURPHYSeptember 24, 2009 AUSTRALIA’S largest company, BHP Billiton, is failing on its greenhouse and energy management,

Desalination, waste, groundwater, energy problems with BHPB’s uranium mining plan

Adelaide Now CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL, BUSINESS EDITOR, and GREG KELTON, WASHINGTON August 24, 2009
KEY environmental concerns about the multibillion-dollar expansion of the Olympic Dam mine must be fixed by BHP Billiton before the mine proceeds.