Radium Hill

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Radium Hill is a former mine in South Australia, which was operated from 1906 to 1961. It is located about 460 kilometers north of Adelaide, 110 kilometers southwest of Broken Hill and was the first uranium mine in Australia, long before the next major mines as Rum Jungle in the Northern Territory (1950 ) or Mary Kathleen in Queensland (1958 ) were built. The associated workers' housing estate, in the once up to 1,100 people lived is, for the most part demolished and now a ghost town. While production from 1954 to 1961 reached its peak in the years here nearly a million tons Daviditerz were promoted from the 860 tons of uranium oxide (measured as uranium (V, VI ) oxide U3O8 ) were obtained.

History

As a future mine site, the area was identified in 1906 by the prospector John Arthur Smith, when he was accidentally radioactive material about 40 km south-east of Olary. Smith mistakenly thought that it was in the dark ore to tin oxide or wolframite. His samples were brought to the University of Adelaide to the young geologists and future Antarctic explorer Douglas Mawson, who found that the ore in addition to radium and uranium traces of ilmenite, rutile, magnetite, hematite, pyrite, chalcopyrite - grown in quartz, biotite, besides chromium, vanadium and molybdenum contained.

Mawson named the ore Davidit by the geologist and Antarctic explorer Sir Edgeworth David. The mine was originally Smith's carnotite Mine ( carnotite is a similar uranium- bearing mineral ) called, but in September 1906 suggested the name Mawson Radium Hill ago. Smith worked for two more years for the mine, before he let discontinue any of its mineral rights. Adjacent mining rights extended to a length of 5 kilometers along the aisle, where Smith was only involved in a half. Later in 1908 the Radium Hill Company took over the rights and further shafts were dug.

The ore concentrate was transported for further processing after New South Wales and Victoria. However, after the price of a gram of radium in 1911 had risen to £ 13,000, a treatment plant at a cost of £ 15,000 in the vicinity of Hunter 's Hill in New South Wales was established by the Radium Hill Company in the same year. A total of 350 milligrams of radium bromide and 150 kilograms of uranium were produced.

The radium bromide was used in the newly emerging research in the fields of radiation and radioactivity, part of the radium from Hunter 's Hill was also sold to the pioneers of Nuclear Research, Ernest Rutherford and Marie Curie.

The operation of the mine was set in 1914, the processing plant closed the following year.

The second phase began in 1923, when the operation of the Radium and Rare Earth Treatment Company NL was resumed. In 1923, a new plant for further processing of the ores in Dry Creek, near Adelaide, built to produce radium for medical purposes. This proved in the following years, however, uneconomical and the operation of both facilities was reinstated in 1931.

Only after the Second World War, the ore mining in Radium Hill reached its peak. First, from the Department of Mines in 1944 geological surveys, then carried out from 1946 to 1947 drilling. In March 1952, the Commonwealth and the Government of South Australia signed a seven-year contract for the supply of uranium to the Combined Development Agency, a joint agency of the United States and Great Britain. Then, a part of the Maldorkey station was annexed in 1954 and reported as uranium mining reserve. The official opening of the mine took place on November 10 of the same year by the Governor-General of Australia, Field Marshall Sir William Slim instead.

The Government of South Australia operated the mine and built the infrastructure to ensure smooth operation. An 18 -km-long side track that connected the area with the main line to Broken Hill was built in 1954, as an airfield and a small town where the miners were to live with their families. 1961 lived 867 people in 145 houses.

The main shaft of the mine was 420 m deep with a 40 m high headframe. The ore was ground in a ball mill, and enriched in place by deposition method. After the pre-processed uranium ore was brought by rail to the purpose-built Port Pirie Uranium Treatment Complex, which was also operated by the Government of South Australia.

The output of the mine was 970,000 tons of ore at a grade of 0.09 to 0.13 % uranium. By enriching created 150,000 tons of yellowcake, which were then in Port Pirie processed by leaching with hot acid to a total of 860 tonnes of U3O8, with a market value of ₤ 15 million. After seven years of the contract was fulfilled with the Combined Development Agency and the facility in Radium Hill was officially shut down on 21 December 1961.

Rehabilitation

The renovation work on the system were conducted in 1962 and 1981. The tailings were covered with 75,000 m³ of material from four excavation holes. The old mine shafts were also filled.

Repository for low level radioactive waste

1981 area of ​​the mine site was designated as a repository for low-level radioactive waste. Approximately 16 different charges of waste, including radioactive contaminated soil from Thebarton in Greater Adelaide were stored in Radium Hill. The last delivery took place in 1998.

A study by the government of New South Wales in 1979 found out that cancer-related deaths among former Radium Hill - workers occur four times more likely than the national average. According to this study, 59% of employees who have worked underground for more than two years, died of cancer.

Since 1998, no other materials have been incorporated in Radium Hill. Today, the responsibility for the site, including radioactive waste, in the Resources Division of Minerals and Energy is located.

Quote

"One ounce of it would be Sufficient to drive or propel three of the large largest battleships afloat for a period of two thousand years. it will mean ... did foreign nations will be Obliged to seek from us the power wherewith to heat and light Their cities, and find Means of defense and offense ... "

" One ounces would suffice to three of the largest battleships to drive over a period of 2000 years ... that means that foreign nations will be forced to have the ability to get from us to heat their cities and to illuminate, but also to defend themselves and attack "