Report: Unfinished business: rehabilitating the Ranger uranium mine

Report: Unfinished business: rehabilitating the Ranger uranium mine

Four decades of imposed uranium mining and milling by Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) and Rio Tinto is about to end at the Ranger uranium mine in Kakadu, leaving a heavily impacted site that requires extensive rehabilitation. Long contested by the area’s Traditional Aboriginal Owners, the Mirarr people, the mine site is completely surrounded by the dual World Heritage listed Kakadu National Park.

This report is an independent assessment of the rehabilitation and mine closure process to date. It explores some of the concerns and constraints surrounding the rehabilitation and makes recommendations that seek to address these in order to improve the chances of the successful closure and rehabilitation of the Ranger Project Area.

The background research to this report was funded by FORMAS, the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development.

Lawrence, R. and Sweeney, D. (2019). Unfinished business: rehabilitating the Ranger uranium mine. Report. Sydney Environment Institute, University of Sydney.

Photo: Jon Connell / Flickr

Share