Manyingee Uranium Deposit, WA
See also : Anti-Nuclear Alliance of WA - Paladin Resources Profile (SEA-USThe Manyingee deposit is located in north-western Western Australia, 75 km south of Onslow. Discovered in 1974, the deposit is located in an old dry bed of the Ashburton River.
Triako Resources (10%) together with Total Mining Australia (82%) and UG of West Germany (8%) carried out trial mining after its EPA assessment in 1983 had to be re-submitted to the licensing authority. Less than 500kg of uranium oxide was extracted during this trial period and stored on-site, although this quantity was allegedly much higher.
In the late 1980s, together with Total Mining Australia and Urangesellschaft, Elf Aquitaine Triako Mines (as a JV) opened up a trial uranium mine at Manyingee near Onslow on the west coast of Western Australia. The companies used in situ leaching techniques, with an alkali solution consisting of hydrogen peroxide, sodium bicarbonate and hypochlorite. Although claimed to be simply a test (since no mining licence had been granted) the experiment lasted 169 days, involving total injection into the orebody of 40.5 million litres of leaching solution. Environmental and pro-Aboriginal organisations were asking by 1986 where the one and a half tonnes of uranium produced at Manyingee had been sent (probably Ranger) and where the groundwater monitoring records were to be found (if indeed they were kept at all). Enquiries revealed nothing, except a wall of hostility by the companies (Total told one enquirer, when asked if the company had commenced Stage Two of its operations "that is none of your business") and bland assurances from the government.
Anti-uranium activists who visited the mine at this time were able to photograph containers on site, and reported large piles of waste with virtually no protection for the public and wildlife.
Technical problems with the pilot plant forced Total to abandon development of the site as a mine in December 1985.
According to investigators at Manyingee in 1986, assay workers for Minatome in 1980/81 had been issued with wire brushes and instructed to erase any Aboriginal paintings in the area. The site is the traditional Dreaming of the Talandji people of the Ashburton river, some of whom live in Onslow (56).
Two orebodies contain a total of 7,870 tonnes of U3O8 in sandstones and siltstones at an average grade of 0.12%.
In February 1998, the deposit was placed on the market since Cogema intend to focus all of their development work on the Koongarra deposit. In June 1998, Paladin Resources, headed by John Borshoff (former Uranerz Australia manager), bought both the Manyingee and Oobagooma deposits. They announced their intention to develop the Manyingee deposit as an ISL mine within 2 to three years. Part of their new proposal is to use sulphuric acid, the same environmentally damaging ISL process as that at Beverley and Honeymoon in SA. The most important point to note about the proposal to use sulphuric acid is that it completely invalidates the earlier field trial, since acid chemistry is very different to alkaline chemistry. Hence new studies will be needed before any mining proposal should be assessed.
Information from the "The Gulliver File", Aquitaine, CFP/Total and Minatome SA Dossiers
and recent media stories (1998).
Last Updated - October 2, 1999.
Back to the Uranium Resources Page or Back to the SEA-US Front Page
Copyright © SEA-US 1997-99