SA Footy

BHP insists Point Lowley best for desalination plant

SARAH MARTIN
January 08, 2010 12:01am
BHP Billiton says building its proposed desalination plant anywhere but Point Lowly on the Spencer Gulf would cost "hundreds of millions" more dollars.

The desal plant's location has divided the State Government and the Opposition, with the latter calling for BHP to investigate an alternative site on the West Coast beyond Ceduna.

Labor member for Giles, Lyn Breuer, also wants the plant built elsewhere, saying the risk to the giant cuttlefish population in the gulf is too great.

The desalination plant is included in the company's Olympic Dam Expansion draft Environmental Impact Statement, which is still being considered by the state and federal governments.

In a report to Parliament in November, Ms Breuer said the State Government had asked BHP to look at alternative locations, but a spokesman for Minerals Resources Minister Paul Holloway yesterday said that was not the case.

BHP head of external affairs Kym Winter-Dewhirst said the only site under consideration was Point Lowly.

"We are certainly conscious of the fact that there are others who believe we should be looking at other sites (but) we have studied a whole range of areas and we have concluded that Point Lowly is far and away the best location," he said.

Mr Winter-Dewhirst said he was confident the research undertaken by the company was sufficient, and questioned the Government's ability to block the site without blocking the project. "You either approve the whole project or you reject the whole project," he said.

Opposition leader Isobel Redmond, who wants the plant built near Penong, said she believed the Government was "over-anxious" for the project to go ahead.

"Is the Premier saying that no matter what environmental impact there may be, he is giving BHP the go-ahead to put the desal plant there?" Ms Redmond said.

"The Government would have the authority to tell them where they can't put the desal plant or where they can."

The State Government said the Liberal Party's position would add $500 million to development costs and threaten the multi-billion dollar project.

"The election of a Redmond government would be catastrophic to the project," Premier Mike Rann said in a statement.

Mr Winter-Dewhirst said if the project were to blow out by half a billion dollars, financing the expansion could be more difficult.

"If suddenly at the whim of a special interest group or a government we were to dramatically alter the financial fundamentals of a project it would have to come under a lot of scrutiny," he said.

Uranium tailings dumped in bags

John Wiseman and Jamie Walker
The Australian January 17, 2008 12:00AM

THE uranium mining rush has suffered a setback after drill tailings were discarded in plastic bags at an environmentally sensitive site in South Australia's Flinders Ranges.
Developer Marathon Resources confirmed yesterday that investigations were under way into the disposal of "exploration materials" at Mt Gee, 660km north of Adelaide, which attracts more than 10,000 visitors a year.

The discovery sparked renewed calls from conservation groups for uranium exploration in the area to be banned.

Police were present on December 27 when the owners of the nearby Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary resort, siblings Doug and Marg Sprigg, unearthed a dump of plastic bags filled with apparent tailings from the drill site.

"I've probably seen 50 to 60bags myself," Ms Sprigg told The Australian.

"We had heard the rumours about what was going on and we went out to the site with the police to do a dig.

"The bags were buried in between half a metre and about a metre and half of soil."

South Australia's Acting Mineral Resources Minister, Michael Atkinson, said exploration tailings were supposed to be re-inserted in drillholes, with all other material being held and then disposed of in Adelaide.

If disposal of the tailings at Mt Gee had breached conditions of Marathon Resources's exploration licence, then the company would be ordered to clean up the site.

"If that doesn't happen, there's of course the possibility that it will be prosecuted and fined," Mr Atkinson said.

He said there was no public health threat.

Marathon Resources pledged yesterday to co-operate with the state investigation, which would run parallel to its own review.

"Marathon has comprehensive records and photographs of all processes undertaken," said chairman Peter Williams. "If the authorities request that further work be done, our records enable us to do it and we will."

It is estimated that the Mt Gee ore body has the potential to yield up to 37,000 tonnes of uranium oxide. Environment groups, including the Wilderness Society, oppose drilling in the Arkaroola wilderness.

Last week, the South Australian Government approved Australia's fourth uranium mine at Honeymoon, in the state's east.

mick wrote:More than likely they spilt their lattes

redandblack wrote:

mick wrote:More than likely they spilt their lattes

Devastatingly original stereotyping, mick

redandblack wrote:No, I'm still on the Sav Blanc, Psyber
Although I do have some nice Henschke reds, including a Hill of Grace. That's waiting for a Westies premiership, so I should be drinking it soon

redandblack wrote:

mick wrote:More than likely they spilt their lattes

Devastatingly original stereotyping, mick

redandblack wrote:The way we've been going, mick, it may very well be 'over the hill' by then

Psyber wrote:

redandblack wrote:The way we've been going, mick, it may very well be 'over the hill' by then

I've just gone through the collection of Shiraz that was my wife's - she was the Shiraz fan in the family - and found a Henschke Mt Edelstone from 1984 and an Eileen Hardy from 1987.
They may be a bit uncertain, but I have found wines of that age have turned out OK in the past if you decant and let them breathe for a few hours..

Jimmy_041 wrote: Sorry to tell you but they both should have been drunk before 2001
If you had a 1985 Mt Edelstone, you would have a beauty right now and still good to 2015 - amazing what difference one year makes