The Honeymoon Mine was Australia's second operating

in-situ recovery In-situ leaching (ISL), also called in-situ recovery (ISR) or solution mining, is a mining process used to recover minerals such as copper and uranium through boreholes drilled into a deposit, '' in situ''. In-situ leach works by artificially d ...

uranium mine, beginning production in 2011. It is located in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

and is northwest of

Broken Hill, New South Wales Broken Hill is a city in the Far West (New South Wales), far west region of outback New South Wales, Australia. An inland mining city, it is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Hi ...

. Honeymoon is a sandstone-hosted paleochannel deposit. Operations at Honeymoon were suspended in November 2013, following difficulties in reaching production targets, high costs and a falling uranium price. The project was placed in care and maintenance, then sold by

Uranium One Uranium One is an international group of companies, part of the management circuit of the TENEX Group of Rosatom State Corporation. Since 2013, it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Moscow-based Uranium One Group, a part of the Russian state-owned n ...

(a 100% subsidiary of Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation) to Boss Resources and Wattle Mining (as of March 2018 a subsidiary of Boss) in September 2015 for a sum of A$9 million. Boss Resources anticipates resuming production at the mine in 2019.

History

The Honeymoon deposit was discovered in 1972 by a joint venture (Minad-Teton-CEC JV) between Mines Administration (a subsidiary of

CSR Limited CSR Pty Ltd is a major Australian industrial company, producing building products and has a 25% share in the Tomago aluminium smelter located near Newcastle, New South Wales. It is a subsidiary of Compagnie de Saint-Gobain S.A. In 2021, it h ...

), Carpentaria Exploration (subsidiary of

Mount Isa Mines Mount Isa Mines Limited ("MIM") operates the Mount Isa copper, lead, zinc and silver mines near Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia as part of the Glencore group of companies. For a brief period in 1980, MIM was Australia's largest company. It has ...

) and Teton Exploration Drilling Co (subsidiary of United Nuclear Corporation). In 1981, Minad submitted a Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to the South Australian and Commonwealth governments, and in 1982 established a $3.5 million demonstration 110 t/yr in-situ leach facility. The pilot plant comprised a pilot leach wellfield of three 5-spot leach patterns, a liquid disposal well, monitor wells, and a processing plant designed to treat pregnant leach solution at a rate of 25 liters per second. Before the pilot wellfield and the demonstration plant were commissioned, there was a change of government in both jurisdictions, approval to mine was deferred, and the project was placed in care and maintenance in June 1983. Between 15 March 1999 and 9 August 2000, a second series of leach trials was conducted. In May 2000, another EIS was produced by Southern Cross Resources (the Australian subsidiary of SXR Uranium One Inc). A mining licence was issued in 2001 and miscellaneous purposes licences were issued in 2002 and 2008. Yellowcake-exhibit-peterborough

Construction of the Honeymoon mine commenced in late 2009 and was completed in 2011. Production from 2011 to 2013 was 312 tonnes of uranium. In November 2013 Uranium One announced "continuing difficulties in the production process and issues in attaining design capacity, combined with high mine operation costs." Honeymoon was shut down pending improved uranium prices and put on care and maintenance.

Ownership

In May 1988, total project ownership was transferred to Carpentaria's parent company,

MIM Holdings MIM Holdings Limited was an Australian mining company created in 1970
Accessed 31 May 2013 as the parent company of

, and in 1997 sold to Southern Cross Resources. Southern Cross Resources later became

Australia Pty Ltd. Uranium One Australia Pty Ltd was purchased by Boss Resources in 2015.

References

External links

Honeymoon Deposit Summary

Frome Embayment Palaeochannel Uranium - Beverley, Four Mile, Honeymoon, Goulds Dam, Warrior
* *{{cite web, url=http://australianmap.net/honeymoon-uranium-mine, title=Honeymoon uranium mine, publisher=australianmap.net, accessdate=2013-06-15, archive-date=14 August 2013, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130814065413/http://australianmap.net/honeymoon-uranium-mine/, url-status=dead Solution mines in Australia Mining in South Australia Far North (South Australia) Uranium mines in South Australia 2011 establishments in Australia

History

Ownership

See also

References

External links