olary creek township mine site main tailings repository “tsf” 0.5 km radium hill aerial...

Olary Creek

Township

Mine site

Main tailings Repository “TSF”

0.5 km

Radium HillAerial Photograph

N

Main tailings repository& tailings dispersal

0.2 km

Aerial PhotographMine Site

Waste rock dumps

Projected lineof lode & underground workings

Crushed wastedumps

Former workshops& processing plant

N

Remnants of shaft headframe and ore bins

High grade U ore samples from dump material (dark minerals and yellow coatings)

Exposure in prospecting pit

of U-mineralised

rock

Waste rock dump

Crushed rock dumps

Note: pepper tree (introduced) and various saltbush species that have taken up U on contaminated areas

Crushed rock

• Used for manufacture of concrete: buildings and other structures

• Road base and road surfacing, work area surfacing

• Bunding for some tailings dams• Railway ballast• Typically contains >250 ppm U

Effects of dispersion of crushed rock, resulting in large anthropogenic U radiometric anomaly

Crushed rock use in Radium Hill

townsite

Road surfacingMajor concrete constructions

Tailings storage facility

Main TSF is about 250 x 150 x 6 m, capped with 1 m soil and subject to rill erosion. It is not a stable landform.

Rill erosion of main TSF to expose mill tailings with >300 ppm U

Gully erosion of small TSF

Dispersal of fine tailings by wind and water erosion (physical, not chemical dispersion)

Dunes of wind-dispersed tailings developed prior to

capping of main TSF

Contaminated Topsoils – Radium Hill

Radiation levels (up to 10x background)Ce-La-Sc-Th-U-V-Y (up to 100x background)

Tailings dam

Wind dispersion, particularly to the SE

Soil contamination by windborne tailings, SE

of main TSF

Soil chemistry affected by addition of wind-borne tailings