Beverley Uranium Mine

Beverley Uranium Mine
Processing plant of the Beverley Uranium Mine
Location
Beverley Uranium Mine is located in Australia
Beverley Uranium Mine
Beverley Uranium Mine
Location in Australia
LocationWooltana, South Australia[1]
StateSouth Australia
CountryAustralia
Coordinates30°11′34″S 139°35′51″E / 30.192876°S 139.597637°E / -30.192876; 139.597637
Production
ProductsUranium
History
Opened2001
Owner
CompanyHeathgate Resources Pty. Ltd.
Websitewww.heathgateresources.com.au

The Beverley Mine is Australia's third uranium mine and Australia's first operating in-situ recovery mine. It is located in South Australia in the gazetted locality of Wooltana about 35 km from Lake Frome at the northern end of the Flinders Ranges.[1] It officially opened in 2001.[2] The original Beverley uranium deposit was discovered by one of Bill Siller's companies in 1969 and was named after his wife—Beverley Siller.

The mine is owned and operated by Adelaide-based company Heathgate Resources Pty Ltd. Heathgate Resources is a wholly owned subsidiary of General Atomics.[3][4]

Beverley is a palaeochannel uranium deposit. The uranium mineralisation (mainly coffinite) is hosted by loose sands in the channel of a former river. The ore bearing horizon is now at a depth of about 100 to 150m. The deposit is estimated to contain 21,000 tonnes of uranium oxide for a mine life of 15 to 30 years.[2] Uranium is extracted by in-situ leaching, involving the injection of a fluid containing sulphuric acid and hydrogen peroxide into the ore-bearing permeable horizon to mobilise the uranium. The fluid is then recovered and uranium is extracted at a central plant using ion-exchange. The final concentrate is trucked to Port Adelaide and then shipped to international customers.

In August 2008, Federal approval was given to Heathgate for a greater area to be accessed for mining in order for the pre-approved volume of material to be extracted from the mine.[5]

Between 1998 and 2007, Heathgate reported 57 spill incidents to Department of Primary Industries and Regions South Australia (PIRSA).[6][7]

  1. ^ a b "Search result for "Beverley Uranium Mine" with the following datasets selected - "Suburbs and Localities", "SA Government Regions" and "Gazetteer"". Location SA Map Viewer. Government of South Australia. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  2. ^ a b "FAQ's:The Mine". Heathgate Resources. Archived from the original on 2009-09-13. Retrieved 2009-07-16.
  3. ^ "Affiliated Companies". Retrieved 2016-09-19.
  4. ^ "Heathgate Resources". www.heathgate.com.au. Retrieved 2016-09-19.
  5. ^ Sabra Lane (2008-08-28). "Garrett approves Beverley uranium mine expansion" (Transcript). PM on ABC Local Radio. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2009-07-16.
  6. ^ Beverley Uranium Mine Spill Incident summary as reported by Heathgate Resources 1998-2003 Archived 2011-03-02 at the Wayback Machine, pir.sa.gov.au
  7. ^ Beverley Uranium Mine Spill Incident summary as reported by Heathgate Resources 2004-2007 Archived 2011-06-15 at the Wayback Machine, pir.sa.gov.au