USGS Map of Northern Territory Uranium Mines

The Nabarlek Mine is a uranium mine in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

which was productively worked only in 1979. The deposit sits within the Alligator Rivers Uranium Field approximately northeast of

Jabiru The jabiru ( or ; ''Jabiru mycteria'') is a large stork found in the Americas from Mexico to Argentina, except west of the Andes. It sometimes wanders into the United States, usually in Texas, but has also been reported in Mississippi, Oklahoma ...

. It was discovered by Queensland Mines Limited in 1970 by following up an intense airborne

radiometric Radiometry is a set of techniques for measuring electromagnetic radiation, including visible light. Radiometric techniques in optics characterize the distribution of the radiation's power in space, as opposed to photometric techniques, which ch ...

anomaly.

History

Discovery and financial implications

Prospecting rights over the future mine were first obtained by Gwendolyne Stevens, a South Australian nurse and sheep farmer who had developed an interest in geology. She obtained rights over of the Oenpelli Aboriginal reserve and named the area " nabarlek" after a local marsupial species. She negotiated an exploration program with Queensland Mines Limited, a subsidiary of Kathleen Investments Limited which owned the

Mary Kathleen Mary Kathleen was a mining settlement in north-western Queensland, Australia. It is located in the Selwyn Range (Australia), Selwyn Range between Mount Isa and Cloncurry. History Mary Kathleen was first settled during the 1860s. Uranium was f ...

uranium mine in Queensland. Both companies were publicly listed, although Kathleen Investments was majority-owned by the Rio Tinto Zinc Corporation (RTZ). In early 1970, Queensland Mines began costeaning Nabarlek, revealing visible deposits of

pitchblende Uraninite, also known as pitchblende, is a radioactive, uranium-rich mineral and ore with a chemical composition that is largely UO2 but because of oxidation typically contains variable proportions of U3O8. Radioactive decay of the urani ...

. One sample was found to contain 72 percent uranium oxide, compared with averages of 0.1 percent on some American and Canadian mines. News of the positive results soon leaked, and on 1 September the company's chairman Roy Hudson announced an estimated yield of 55,000 tonnes of uranium oxide at an average grade of per tonne. This sent the Queensland Mines share price to a peak of $46, up from $12 at the start of the year. It was widely reported that Nabarlek was the richest uranium deposit in the world. In August 1971, the technical committee of QML revised its estimated yield for Nabarlek to 9,000 tonnes, leading to calls for the resignation of Hudson and a steep fall in the share price. This in turn led to the collapse of investment house Mineral Securities Limited in 1972 and contributed to the insolvency of

Patrick Corporation Patrick Corporation is an Australian seaport operator with operations in Port of Brisbane, Brisbane, Fremantle Harbour, Fremantle, Port of Melbourne, Melbourne and Port Botany (seaport), Sydney. Formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exch ...

in 1975, both of which had made considerable investments at higher prices. Finance journalist Trevor Sykes has described this situation as analogous to the Poseidon bubble of 1970. In May 1973, the original licence-holder Gwendolyne Stevens transferred her rights to Queensland Mines in exchange for a royalty agreement. She died of a cerebral haemorrhage in March 1974.

Relations with Indigenous landholders

The proposed mine site was located from an Aboriginal sacred site known as Gabo Djang, associated with the Dreaming related to the green ant. The

traditional owners Native title is the set of rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title rig ...

of Nabarlek consequently opposed the mine. QML initially offered $7,425 in exchange for the mineral rights, which by 1974 had grown to a package of $891,000 in cash plus a royalty valued at $13.6 million, which was rejected.

Mining

Open cut mining eventually took place between June and October 1979 with the ore stockpiled for milling. 546,437 t of ore were mined at an average grade of 1.84% U₃O₈. The mill commenced operation in June 1980 and ran until 1988, during which time 11,084 t U₃O₈ were produced. A survey in 2006 concluded that revegetation had failed. Rehabilitation work is continuing.

References

External links

Nabarlek Deposit Summary Report

Nabarlek
Uranium mining in the Northern Territory Surface mines in Australia