
The Ranger Uranium Mine was a
uranium mine
Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the earth. Over 50,000 tons of uranium were produced in 2019. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia were the top three uranium producers, respectively, and together account for 68% of w ...
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 ...
of
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 ...
. The site is surrounded by, but separate from
Kakadu National Park
Kakadu National Park is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia, southeast of Darwin. It is a World Heritage Site. Kakadu is also gazetted as a locality, covering the same area as the national park, with 313 people recorded l ...
, 230 km east of
Darwin. The orebody was discovered in late 1969, and the mine commenced operation in 1980, reaching full production of
uranium oxide
Uranium oxide is an oxide of the element uranium.
The metal uranium forms several oxides:
* Uranium dioxide or uranium(IV) oxide (UO2, the mineral uraninite or pitchblende)
* Diuranium pentoxide or uranium(V) oxide (U2O5)
* Uranium trioxide or ...
in 1981 and ceased stockpile processing on 8 January 2021. Mining activities had ceased in 2012. It was owned and operated by
Energy Resources of Australia
Energy Resources of Australia Ltd () is a public company based in Australia. It is a subsidiary of the Rio Tinto Group which as of 2021 owns 86.3% of the company. The remainder is publicly held and traded on the Australian Securities Exchange. The ...
(ERA), a public company 86.33% owned by
Rio Tinto Group
Rio Tinto Group is a British-Australian multinational company that is the world's second largest metals and mining corporation (behind BHP). It was founded in 1873 when a group of investors purchased a mine complex on the Río Tinto, in Hu ...
, the remainder held by the public. Uranium mined at Ranger was sold for use in
nuclear power station
A nuclear power plant (NPP), also known as a nuclear power station (NPS), nuclear generating station (NGS) or atomic power station (APS) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power st ...
s in Japan, South Korea, China, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden and the United States.
The original Ranger 1 orebody was mined out by the end of 1995, although some ore remained stockpiled. A second orebody, Ranger 3, began mining in 1997. Both were
open-pit
Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique that extracts rock (geology), rock or minerals from the earth.
Open-pit mines are used when deposits of commercially ...
mines. Mining finished at Ranger in late 2012, efforts to exploit Ranger 3 Deeps failed, and the mine plant processed some stockpiled ore until January 2021. ERA has tenure and access to the site, principally for rehabilitation activities, until 8 January 2026.
Discovery

The Ranger uranium
orebody
Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically including metals, concentrated above background levels, and that is economically viable to mine and process. The grade of ore refers to the concentration o ...
, the richest in the southern hemisphere, was discovered in late 1969, when an aerial radiometric survey conducted by Geophysical Resources Development Co., a company based in Sydney, on contract to
Noranda Aluminum, detected a large spike in gamma radiation when passing over Mount Brockman, known as Djidbidjidbi to the
Mirarr 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 the area. The instrument that detected the anomaly was a Nuclear Enterprises gamma ray spectrometer using a Thallium doped Sodium Iodide cylindrical crystal. At time of discovery the aircraft was flying at an altitude of . The anomaly could still be detected at almost . The crew members on board were Bill Hay, the pilot, Harvey Morton, the navigator and Frank Lanza, the instruments operator, who first recognised the significance of the anomaly.
Ranger Uranium Environmental Inquiry
In 1975,
Gough Whitlam
Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from December 1972 to November 1975. To date the longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), he was notable for being ...
appointed Justice
Russell Fox
Russell Walter Fox AC QC LLB (30 September 1920 – 22 December 2013) was an Australian author, educator, jurist and former chief judge of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory. He is best known for his extensive report on uran ...
, a judge of the
Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory
The Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory is the highest court of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). It has unlimited jurisdiction within the territory in civil matters and hears the most serious criminal matters.
The court ha ...
, to lead an inquiry into the environmental dangers posed by mining uranium 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 ...
and the associated risks of exporting it, including those of
nuclear proliferation
Nuclear proliferation is the spread of nuclear weapons to additional countries, particularly those not recognized as List of states with nuclear weapons, nuclear-weapon states by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonl ...
. The inquiry produced two reports, published in 1976 and 1977.
Ore bodies
The Ranger No. 1 and Ranger No. 3 ore bodies occur in the Cahill
Formation, consisting of Lower
Proterozoic
The Proterozoic ( ) is the third of the four geologic eons of Earth's history, spanning the time interval from 2500 to 538.8 Mya, and is the longest eon of Earth's geologic time scale. It is preceded by the Archean and followed by the Phanerozo ...
metasediment
In geology, metasedimentary rock is a type of metamorphic rock. Such a rock was first formed through the deposition and solidification of sediment
Sediment is a solid material that is transported to a new location where it is deposited. It occu ...
s, located in the
Alligator Rivers
Alligator Rivers is the name of an area in an Arnhem Land region of the Northern Territory of Australia, containing three rivers, the East, West, and South Alligator Rivers. It is regarded as one of the richest biological regions in Australia, ...
Uranium Field. The mine commenced operation in 1980, reaching full production of
uranium oxide
Uranium oxide is an oxide of the element uranium.
The metal uranium forms several oxides:
* Uranium dioxide or uranium(IV) oxide (UO2, the mineral uraninite or pitchblende)
* Diuranium pentoxide or uranium(V) oxide (U2O5)
* Uranium trioxide or ...
in 1981. Owing to the environmental sensitivity of the site, a special
statutory authority
A statutory body or statutory authority is a body set up by law (statute) that is authorised to implement certain legislation on behalf of the relevant country or state, sometimes by being empowered or delegated to set rules (for example reg ...
, the
Supervising Scientist, was created to provide oversight of the operation and conduct environmental research in the region.
Ranger mine covers two of a line of uranium orebodies that extend from near
Nourlangie Rock in Kakadu north-eastwards to Koongarra, underneath Mount Brockman, then northwards through the Ranger One line of orebodies (in order Number 2, Number 1, and Number 3), then via Hades Flat, where there is uranium mineralisation, to Jabiluka where the line turns westward through the Barote and Ranger 4 orebodies. The mine covers No 1 Orebody and No 3 Orebody. No 2 Orebody was excluded from the mining lease at the request of the traditional owners and included in Kakadu National Park. From Ranger 4 the line again turns northwards and then swings westward round an Archaean basement dome before turning south towards Nourlangie Rock again. Uranium mineralisation is known at several other places along this line but has never been explored in detail because of the creation of Kakadu. The name 'Ranger' for the series of discoveries made by Geopeko, the exploration arm of
Peko-Wallsend
Peko-Wallsend was an Australian mining company.
History
Peko-Wallsend was founded in 1961 when Peko Mines merged with Wallsend Investments. In 1962 Peko-Wallsend purchased Toll Transport. In January 1968, Peko-Wallsend acquired a majority share ...
, in the period 1969 to 1972, was thought up by Judy Ryan, the wife of the geologist in charge of the program. Koongarra and Jabiluka were retained by the companies that found them: Noranda Australia and Pancontinental Mining respectively, although since sold to other parties. The other discoveries were enclosed in the National Park.
ERA was named Explorer of the Year at the sixth annual Australian Mining Prospect Awards held in Sydney in November 2009. During 2008, ERA's exploration programme identified a significant mineral resource adjacent to the operating Ranger 3 pit. The area, known as Ranger 3 Deeps, ranked among the world's most significant new uranium discoveries of recent years.
Ranger 3 Deeps
As production from the existing mines declined in the early 2010s, ERA constructed a $120 million Ranger 3 Deeps exploration decline (tunnel) to conduct close spaced underground exploration drilling and explore areas adjacent to the Ranger 3 Deeps resource. This was never developed as of 2024. The Ranger 3 Deeps mineralised zone contains an
estimated resource of of uranium oxide, comprising measured, indicated and inferred categories totalling 11.9 million tonnes of ore grading 0.274% U
3O
8.
New permissions would have been needed to mine this resource. In parallel with the construction of the exploration decline, ERA began a $57 million project to prepare a Prefeasibility Study into the potential development of a Ranger 3 Deeps underground mine. This Study determined the economic viability of the project, optimal mining methods, and metallurgical performance and production rates. Environmental studies were also conducted and published. ERA consulted further with the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation as a component of a broader social impact assessment.
ERA formally commenced the statutory approval process for the proposed Ranger 3 Deeps underground mine in January 2013 with the submission of a referral to the Commonwealth Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water Population and Communities under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Control Act 1999. At the same time, ERA separately lodged a notice of intent with the Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority under the Northern Territory Environmental Assessment Act. However, as reported by ''World Nuclear News'' in 2021, "Traditional owners of the land covered by the Ranger uranium project informed ERA in 2015 that they did not support any extension of the authority to mine in the project area. ERA decided not to proceed with a final feasibility study at Ranger 3 Deeps, which is an extension of the Ranger orebody. ERA today said it now expects to begin work to close the 2.2 km, 400-500 m deep Ranger 3 Deeps decline, excavated as part of those studies, during the first-half of this year."
Ore processing
Ore was crushed, ground, then leached with
sulphuric acid
Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid ( Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen, and hydrogen, with the molecular formu ...
. Uranium was removed using
kerosene
Kerosene, or paraffin, is a combustibility, combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in Aviation fuel, aviation as well as households. Its name derives from the Greek (''kērós'') meaning " ...
with
amine
In chemistry, amines (, ) are organic compounds that contain carbon-nitrogen bonds. Amines are formed when one or more hydrogen atoms in ammonia are replaced by alkyl or aryl groups. The nitrogen atom in an amine possesses a lone pair of elec ...
then stripped with
ammonium sulphate
Ammonium sulfate (American English and international scientific usage; ammonium sulphate in British English); (NH4)2SO4, is an inorganic salt with a number of commercial uses. The most common use is as a soil fertilizer. It contains 21% nitrogen a ...
solution and gaseous
ammonia
Ammonia is an inorganic chemical compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the chemical formula, formula . A Binary compounds of hydrogen, stable binary hydride and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinctive pu ...
.
Ammonium diuranate Ammonium diuranate or (ADU) ((NH4)2U2O7), is one of the intermediate chemical forms of uranium produced during yellowcake production. The name "yellowcake" originally given to this bright yellow salt, now applies to mixtures of uranium oxides which ...
was precipitated by increasing the pregnant solution
pH, and converted to uranium oxide (U
3O
8) in a furnace.
In early 2006, ERA announced an expansion to the processing plant which allowed production to extend into lower-grade ore and in November 2006 the company announced plans to invest in a
laterite
Laterite is a soil type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by intensive and prolo ...
processing plant, which would allow it to process ore with a high clay content that has been stockpiled since the mine began operating. This ore had been already included in stated reserves. The laterite processing plant contributed 400 tonnes of uranium oxide per year from 2008 until closure.
Water management
Water management is a critical component of ERA's business, and between 2009 and 2012, it completed water management projects for a total cost of $82 million.
[Energy Resources of Australia 2012 Annual Report, p. 32] This included surface water interception trenches around stockpiles to protect local waterways, installation of continuous real-time monitoring stations, and additional ground water bores to augment the extensive ground water monitoring programme.
In addition, ERA completed a 2.3-metre life of the Tailings Storage Facility, constructed a new pond water retention pond to store up to one gigalitre of pond water, and installed contingency water pumping system between the Tailings Storage Facility and Pit 3.
From 2012 to 2014, ERA expected to expend a total of $316 million in various water management projects including the $220 million Brine Concentrator Project.
Brine Concentrators use thermal energy to evaporate water, which is subsequently condensed and discharged as clean distilled water.
The Brine Concentrator had the capacity to produce 1.83 gigalitres of clean water per year through the treatment of process water. Hatch was appointed EPCM contractor for the Brine Concentrator project. It was successfully commissioned in November 2013 with a budget of AUD $220 Million dollars.
In 2012, ERA and the Mirarr traditional owners represented by the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation (GAC), conducted a jointly facilitated independent expert review of the quality of surface water around the Ranger Project Area. The Independent Surface Water Working Group consisted of representatives from ERA, GAC, the Supervising Scientists Division and the Northern Land Council.
Over a six-month period, the working group examined the impacts, monitoring and reporting of surface water flowing from the Ranger mine.
The working group agreed in findings released in March 2013 that the surface water management and regulatory systems in place at the Ranger mine were of a very high standard.
Going forward, the Group agreed an action plan to ensure that surface water management systems at Ranger remained "best leading practice".
Safety breaches and controversy
Environment Australia
Environment most often refers to:
__NOTOC__
* Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...
(an agency of the
Government of Australia
The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national Executive (government), executive government of Australia, a federalism, federal Parliamentary system, parliamentary con ...
) have documented over 200 environmental incidents since 1979. The great majority of these were minor, but the significant ones are detailed below.
[
] In 2013, a spokesperson from the Public Health Association of Australia claimed that there had been a hundred safety incidents linked to the mine in the thirty years prior.
In May 2005 the company was convicted for breaching environmental guidelines - the first such prosecution of a mining company in the Northern Territory, relating to accidental radiological exposure to ERA employees.
[John Carroll v Energy Resources of Australia ]005
''005'' (pronounced "''double-o five''") is a 1981 arcade video game by Sega. They advertised it as the first of their RasterScan Convert-a-Game series, designed so that it could be changed into another game in minutes "at a substantial savings. ...
NTMC 067 Radioactively contaminated process water had entered the drinking water supply and some workers drank and washed in it. Dozens of mine employees were found to have showered in and consumed water containing 400 times the legal limit of uranium. The maximum radiation exposure of workers was likely to have been much less than the regulatory limit, and no harmful long-term health effects are likely.
Other incidents involving decontamination of vehicles have been identified.
When the work-for-welfare mechanic in
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 ...
opened the engine bay, he was unaware of the nature of the mud and dirt which fell on the floor. The court heard that in the following weeks, after he had swept the material outside his shed, his children played and built sandcastles in mud contaminated with uranium.
Another significant controversy over Ranger's environmental impact is the public legal confrontation over releases into Magela Creek in the 1995 wet season. More recently, the ARRAC report from 2002 details a major leak of about 2 megalitres of potentially polluted water, over a number of months.
In 2007, water breached a retention pond, overflowing back into the pit. The original authorisation required that this water be contained at all times. In 2006, water management systems were disrupted by
Cyclone Monica
Severe Tropical Cyclone Monica was the most intense tropical cyclone, in terms of maximum sustained winds, on record to impact Australia. The 17th and final storm of the 2005–06 Australian region cyclone season, Monica originated from an area ...
.
In May 2010, it was reported that a tailings dam may have released millions of litres of radioactive water into world heritage-listed wetlands in
Kakadu National Park
Kakadu National Park is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia, southeast of Darwin. It is a World Heritage Site. Kakadu is also gazetted as a locality, covering the same area as the national park, with 313 people recorded l ...
, home to about 500 Aboriginal people.
In November 2013, four drums previously used to transport yellowcake were found in a rural area of Darwin. The company recovered the drums amid concerns about the potential spread of radioactive contamination.
On 7 December 2013 there was an incident at a mine site inside Kakadu National Park, with about a million litres of slurry, comprising crushed ore and acid, believed spilled, workers evacuated and production shut down. A leaching tank containing the slurry burst at about 1am. The spilled material was entirely contained within the safety bunds and no material leaked into the wider ecosystem.
Environmental justice issues
Ranger Uranium Mine is situated on the traditional lands of the
Mirarr people of northern Australia and has been the subject of environmental and Aboriginal rights concerns. Although the Mirarr people, led by senior
traditional owner
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 right ...
Toby Gangale, opposed establishment of uranium mining, it began in the 1970s.
In 1976, despite this opposition, the Australian federal government authorized the mine's development, leading to concerns over the violation of
Aboriginal land rights.
Since then, environmental groups and Mirarr representatives have continued to oppose the mine, with the senior traditional owner
Yvonne Margarula continuing to voice concerns about its lasting impacts.
In addition to the environmental degradation caused by the mine, the Mirarr have also raised concerns about uranium from the site potentially contributing to nuclear accidents.
With mining operations ceasing in 2021, subsequent rehabilitation efforts have been closely monitored, particularly regarding corporate responsibility and Aboriginal land rights.
Energy Resources of Australia (ERA), majority-owned by Rio Tinto Group, is legally required to rehabilitate the site to a condition suitable for inclusion in the World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park.
Concerns have been raised about whether the ERA has sufficient resources to fulfil its legal obligations, with some questioning whether the financial and logistical burden of cleanup will ultimately fall on the Mirarr people.
See also
*
List of uranium mines
Uranium production is carried out in about 13 countries around the world, in 2017 producing a cumulative total of 59,462 tonnes of uranium (tU). The international producers were Kazakhstan (39%), Canada (22%), Australia (10%), Namibia (7.1%), Nig ...
*
Unconformity uranium deposits
*
Uranium mining
Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the earth. Over 50,000 tons of uranium were produced in 2019. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia were the top three uranium producers, respectively, and together account for 68% of w ...
*
Uranium market
The uranium market, like all commodity markets, has a history of volatility, moving with the standard forces of supply and demand as well as geopolitical pressures. It has also evolved particularities of its own in response to the unique nature ...
*
Uranium mining in Australia
Radioactive ores were first extracted in South Australia at Radium Hill in 1906 and Mount Gee#History, Mount Painter in 1911. 2,000 tons of ore were treated to recover radium for medical use. Several hundred kilograms of uranium were also prod ...
References
* IAEA, 1980. URANIUM IN THE PINE CREEK GEOSYNCLINE (Eds J Ferguson and A B Goleby). Proceedings of the international symposium on the Pine Creek Geosyncline, Int. Atomic Energy Agency, Sydney, Australia, 4–8 June 1979.
External links
Ranger Deposit Summary ReportRangerEnergy Resources of Australiacollection of news articles and media releases about Ranger Uranium Mine
{{Authority control
1980 establishments in Australia
Open-pit mines
Former Rio Tinto (corporation) subsidiaries
Surface mines in Australia
Uranium mines in the Northern Territory