Holloway replies, and 50 new drill holes for the Wilderness Sanctuary

I have received the following correspondence from Minister Paul Holloway - the state Minister for Mineral Resources Development, regarding my letter of the 9th of November 2007.

This letter pointed out the impact of exploration operations and queried whether an actual mine could ever really be established anyway given a 'reasonable' interpretation of current state legislation (this can be read at the bottom of the please act for arkaroola - write away journal entry) -

Dear Mr. Doyle,

I acknowledge your further letter dated 9 November 2007 concerning exploration activity within the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary.

As indicated in my previous reply, Marathon Resources is the operator of Mineral Exploration Licence EL3258 in the Northern Flinders Ranges. Exploration activity by a number of companies has been ongoing in this area for some decades.

A Mineral Exploration Licence permits a company to undertake authorised exploration work programs. The holder of an Exploration Licence does not have any approval or authority under the Mining Act 1971 to undertake mining. Furthermore, the granting of an Exploration Licence does not imply any guaranteed approval for establishing a mining operation in the event that a viable mineral resource is discovered.

The Department of Primary Industries and Resources (PIRSA) is the regulatory authority that assesses exploration work proposals and places stringent requirements for the conduct and rehabilitation of all exploration work. I understand that PIRSA is undertaking a comprehensive audit of the company's compliance with all environmental requirements and rehabilitation progress to date. This audit will involve consultation with the owner and operator of Arkaroola. No further approvals for additional exploration drilling will be given until this Government has confirmed that environmental standards are being met in this sensitive area.

Furthermore, I recently visited the area accompanied by the Executive Director, Minerals and Energy Resources, PIRSA, and met with the owners of the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary. This provided the opportunity for them to discuss their views and concerns and provided me the opportunity to personally view the site of the exploration area for myself. I also met with representatives from Marathon Resources while visiting the area.

Please be assured that the State Government is fully aware of community concerns on this matter and of the importance of the unique environmental, geological, landscape and conservation values of this area.

Yours sincerely

Paul Holloway
Minister for Mineral Resources Development

It is certainly a good thing that the Minister has visited the site for himself, that all requirements are 'stringent', that an audit of Marathon's operations will be undertaken, and that the government is 'fully aware' of community concerns and the value of the sanctuary.

However, it became apparent at a meeting I attended with The Wilderness Society campaigners and Department of Mineral Resources Development staff late last year that those staff essentially saw the company's current operations as guideline compliant despite their obviously controversial nature.

Again, the minister's letter mainly addresses procedural issues, and not the core point as to how the project could ever have been conceived to be viable in an Environmental Class A Zone in the first place (see my letter to the Minister)

And it is to be noted that the company itself has just announced an expanded drilling program -


marathon announce 50 new drill sites, EIS


On the 18th of December 2007 Marathon announced an accelerated 50 hole drilling program...

“We already have two drill rigs operating around the clock and have to date drilled 16 holes as part of a $7.2 million, 50-hole program,” Marathon Director, Mr Denis Wood, said today.

... and that a formal Pre-Feasibility Study, and Environmental Impact Study will be undertaken for the Mount Gee project -

The Company also announced today it had given the go-ahead for both a Pre Feasibility Study (PFS) and Environmental Impact Study (EIS) to begin.

Mr Wood said SMG Consultants had been commissioned to undertake the comprehensive PFS of the mining process, while Enesar Consulting – a subsidiary of highly-respected engineering group, Coffey International - has been secured for the EIS.

He said the appointments of SMG Consultants and Enesar Consulting were a significant “next step” forward in the proposed development of the Mt Gee uranium project.

“The purpose of the PFS is to cost the technical viability of underground extraction of uranium ore to a near-site processing facility,” Mr Wood said.

“This is a comprehensive and critical process which is expected to be completed by March 2009,” he said.

“The same applies with our EIS, which is a crucial component to the future of our project.”

Environmental issues that form part of the EIS include groundwater impacts, surface water management, flora and fauna, Aboriginal heritage management, air and noise
quality, and land use impacts.

The EIS is expected to take 12 to 18 months to be completed.

please act for arkaroola - write away!

This is a critical time for all those who wish to protect the Arkaroola Sanctuary from the impact of mineral exploration and potential mining.

The South Australian government cannot continue to ignore the damage done to this fragile semi-arid region by Uranium exploration crews operating in the vicinity of Mount Gee. Nor can it hold that these operations will not affect the welfare of the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary, the ecotourism business that was set up precisely to preserve the natural and historical heritage values of this magnificent area.

The impact of mineral exploration activities is already clearly visible from, and is set to expand further into the region directly adjacent to, the famous Ridgetop Track.

Furthermore, given that the Arkaroola Sanctuary is a Class A Environmental Zone under the Planning Act mining should only be a possibility in truly exceptional circumstances, of 'paramount importance' and in the 'national interest'.

Surely the intention of this legislation was to completely protect the area - particularly from mining given its history - unless an extremely unlikely situation arose; such as a particular mineral, vital for national defence, being only available to be mined in Arkaroola?

Marathon's project, a mere 30km or so from the operating Beverley in-situ leach mine - itself poised to expand significantly - and only one in a state awash with Uranium projects, hardly fits the bill!

Certainly, Marg Sprigg, owner of Arkaroola, has said that she felt relief when the property became a Sanctuary, as she felt that it was now fully protected. Unfortunately the actions - or inactions - of our state government indicate that in this belief she was sadly deluded.

why should this have happened?

Marathon claim that they will 'rehabilitate' this site. As a professional revegetator I remain extremely skeptical of the claim that any such efforts can ever really hope to restore a natural ecosystem. In fact, the mining industry is one of the few arenas in which such claims are made with confidence. In my industry its clearly understood that the best way of preserving an environment is not to disturb it in the first place!

Additionally, Arkaroola is in its 9th consecutive year of drought, and scarcely needs another set of pressures on already highly-stressed ecosysytems.

But arguing the toss about 'putting it all back' is not the point. The real question is - why should this have happened in the first place? Why should this magnificent area suffer this intrusion at all? Shouldn't the owners of Arkaroola Sanctuary, and the people of South Australia - and Australia - be entitled to think that this region has been set aside to be preserved for posterity, to be disturbed no longer? And why should the mining industry be able to impact so dramatically on a tourism icon and the ecotourism industry generally?

As to the oft-touted idea of the eventual mine's being underground, and accessed from outside the sanctuary, and thereby 'barely noticeable', I remind you that Stuart Hall, Marathon's recently departed CEO, told ABC Radio National in early October that they were also considering a shaft 'in one of the gorges', and a trucking route and/or conveyor and/or slurry pipeline across the ranges to deliver ore to their processing area. In the circumstances the safest way to preserve the integrity of the area is simply to disallow the mine.

please - write now!

Please write to The Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Paul Holloway MLC, telling him that rather than an expansion of exploration you would like to see the crews removed from the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary, and the area completely and permanently protected from mining. An example letter is attached below. Please, if you write, attach a copy of your letter as a comment below, or simply send it to me and I'll post it as an example for people to cull ideas from.

Correspondence can be addressed as below. As usual, I'm sure you are aware of the need to please be polite, and respectful in tone. and, also as usual, your letter doesn't have to be long or brilliant, it just has to be on the minister's desk!.

Bearing in mind the above, please personalise your letter as much as you can, as at this level of campaigning the impact of correspondence that has clearly been deliberated over by the individual writer is greater than that of obviously duplicated material. It doesn't have to be completely unique, just unique enough.

Much other information about the area and the proposed mine, along with pictures of Mount Gee and the surrounding region, can be found on this site. I also recommend the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary's own site's take on the issue.

if you only write one letter a year in response to this kind of appeal, i urge you to consider making it this one!

Hon. Paul Holloway, MLC

Postal Address
GPO Box 2832
ADELAIDE SA 5001

Office Number +61 8 8303 2500
Fax Number +61 8 8303 2597

Email ministerholloway@saugov.sa.gov.au

EXAMPLE LETTER

My letter to the Minister for Mineral Resources Development. Emphasis for the purpose of this posting has been added by me:

The Hon. Paul Holloway. MLC
Minister for Mineral Resource Development
via e-mail.
Friday 9th November 2007

Dear Minister Holloway,

I am writing to you asking you to call a halt to Marathon Resources’ Mineral Exploration operations at Mount Gee in the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary.

You have recently written to me in indirect reply to a letter I had written on the topic to your colleague Gail Gago, in her capacity as Minister for Environment and Conservation. This letter attempted to assure me that nothing untoward was happening at Mount Gee, but, having visited the site, I simply cannot agree and feel I must object strongly.

I remind you that The Advertiser reported on the 20th of September this year ‘[a] spokesman for Mineral Resources Development Minister Paul Holloway said it had been made clear to the company any proposal must not ``impact on the environment, heritage and tourism value of the area''. And that your reply to my initial letter reads, in-part, as follows; ‘[i]n recognition of the environmental sensitiv[it]ies of the
region, the Department of Primary Industries and Resources (PIRSA) closely monitors and regulates all exploration companies operating in the region, including Marathon Resources' exploration program and activities on EL3258’.

I suggest that significant impacts in all three of the categories mentioned above have and are occurring, and are only likely to deepen as exploration expands.

It seems to me that there are two ways in which Marathon’s current extensive earthworks and drilling program at Mount Gee can be viewed:

Either these activities constitute mineral exploration Best Practice, in which case I would argue that there is no place for Best Practice Exploration in our sanctuaries and high-value conservation areas. Or they do not constitute Best Practice, in which case it is almost inconceivable that this should have been allowed to continue in the heart of such an aesthetically and biologically valuable area and in one of the
nation’s most prominent ecotourism destinations. (Accordingly I have copy-forwarded this letter to Tourism Minister Jane Lomax Smith.)

I’m quite confident that a majority of South Australian – and other Australians - would agree with me.

A number of photographs of these operations – by no means a definitive survey, but certainly indicative - are available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/liamjon-d/sets/72157602426525519/ I also urge you to make your own inspection of the area.

Extensive exploration scarring is clearly visible from the famous Ridgetop Track tourism route and to anyone availing themselves of the range of scenic flights offered over the sanctuary. I remind you that the area is already extensively affected by a record 9 years of unbroken drought, and scarcely needs the
burden of additional environmental stresses.

I am further frustrated in that I fail to see how any eventual mine can be allowed in this Class A Environmental Zone. I feel that your government’s construing of a mine at Mount Gee as being of ‘paramount importance’ or ‘in the national interest’ would not be accepted in the community.

This is particularly so given the number of other Uranium mines either operating or on-line to do so in the state, most notably approximately 30km away from Mount Gee at Beverley! (Not to mention the new 4 Mile deposit.)

I also do not feel that merely stating that a formal application to mine hasn’t been received by your government yet, as you do in your letter, is a satisfactory response in the circumstances.

My previous letter mentioned the issue of the Company’s proposal to mine via long access shafts coming from outside the Sanctuary. Having attended a meeting at Marathon’s office where company executives explained this process I cannot say that I felt overwhelmingly persuaded of its economic - or physical – viability. And I want to make clear that Stuart Hall, outgoing CEO for Marathon, told ABC Radio’s Bush Telegraph that they were also considering an access shaft ‘running to the head of one of the gorges in the area’, and a trucking route or slurry pipeline or conveyor (through the Wilderness Sanctuary!) to their processing facilities only a week after this meeting.

This is precisely the kind of intrusion and uncertainty that neither the environment of the northern Flinders Ranges, nor the operators of the Sanctuary, can afford.

Would you care to operate a ‘Wilderness Sanctuary’ that you have extensively promoted as an ecotourism destination with the prospect of an intrusive and expanding exploration program, and a mine that may introduce major shafts, pipelines, conveyors and/or haulage routes hanging over your head? Particularly as the general public – and potential traveller - becomes more aware that this is the case? Little wonder then that the Sanctuary’s owners have publicly stated that they ‘don’t want a mine, of any description, on Arkaroola’.

I wish to strongly support their position. I remind you of the Sanctuary’s success at the SA Tourism awards only this last Saturday, and suggest that this is not the way to treat a ‘Hall of Fame’ icon, and one of our state’s most prominent tourism businesses.

To paraphrase I suggest that ‘We [the majority of South Australians, and indeed Australians] don’t want a mine, of any description, on Arkaroola’!

I urge your government to announce the cessation of these activities as soon as possible.

Yours Sincerely,

Bill Doyle

unwanted, unsightly and frankly unbelievable - marathon in arkaroola

If this is what the exploration phase is like, imagine the mine!

One might think that if a company was to be undertaking controversial exploration work in a highly-sensitive environment with a view to establishing a very large mine that company would go out of its way to minimise its impacts while it was doing so.

Not so, apparently, in the case of work being undertaken by Marathon Resources in the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary. Perhaps they feel that with the state government uncritically praising the mining boom to the skies acceptance of their project is a foregone conclusion.

This is a no way to treat an environmental and tourism icon! I was genuinely shocked, having been exposed to a good deal of the Department of Mineral Resources Development's propaganda regarding best-practice exploration. Little wonder the Sanctuary's owners, Doug and Marg Sprigg, want no part of the company's proposed mine!

This work is being undertaken directly adjacent to the route of the famous ridgetop tour. Extensive scarring is already visible from the tour vehicles in the basin lying to the east of Mount Gee, and exploration is due to expand there as this is the company's main target region.

The company says that it intends to establish the mine underground, using a giant tunnel they'll run in from the fringes of the ranges. We'd scarcely know they were there! Well, there'd be ventilation tunnels and emergency exit shafts! No, they couldn't say how many. Or just what this rather implausible scenario might cost.

But would it all be underground? We were told this at a meeting I, along with representatives from The Wilderness Society and the Australian Conservation Foundation, attended at the Marathon's Adelaide offices on the 24th of September. But by the next week the company's CEO wasn't so sure, telling ABC Radio's 'Bush Telegraph' that they might install a shaft 'in the head of one of the gorges' with a trucking route - or even a conveyor - to reach their processing area on the plains! Through the wilderness sanctuary! Perhaps this was due to the recent $20 per pound fall in the price of Uranium?

At any rate, judging by their efforts so far one must have little confidence in the company's respect for the area, or their ability to manage their exploration crews' impact in this delicate semi-arid environment.

And no-one who has visited this area with eyes unclouded by dollar signs could fail to be impressed by it's majestic wildness, and its eminent suitability to remain what it is now, a sanctuary preserving this unique environment and the rich range of species associated with it.

For more images from the Mount Gee region see the 'Would U mine it?' set on flickr -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/liamjon-d/sets/72157602426525519/

(also available as a slideshow from the page, or go straight to it here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/liamjon-d/sets/72157602426525519/show/
)

Mike Rann: will u save us from the serial U miners?

In October last year, Marathon Resources - the same company that currently proposes to open a Uranium mine in the heart of the Arkaroola Sanctuary - delivered notices requiring exploration access to about 20 properties on the Fleurieu Peninsula near the Myponga Reservoir, in order to prospect for Uranium.

The company's Dr. John Santich explained; "Down there at Myponga we've known since we put in the application that it was highly unlikely that we'd ever get a permit to mine, even if we found what you call a viable deposit which would have to be massive and very rich," he said.

"Nevertheless it's worth exploring, it's worth getting that knowledge."

The locals were understandably unhappy at the prospect, 'unlikely' or not, and Mike Rann swiftly intervened, announcing that his Cabinet "would never approve a uranium mine anywhere near the Myponga Reservoir". As it shouldn't.

In November of that same year Fleurieu residents were calling for a complete ban on uranium mining on the peninsula. An ABC article of the period notes that while Marathon would not be doing any exploration on the Fleurieu, the Mineral Resource Development branch of the Dept. of Primary Industries would! They too apparently believe "it's worth getting that knowledge". Just out of interest. After all, it might be "massive and very rich"!

The Advertiser (18/08/07) has just reported the departing head of the Environmental Protection Agency's advice to the state government. Dr. Paul Vogel stated that the mining boom would confront "difficult" environmental, social, economic, and equity issues;

We will need a really good policy framework so we don't trade off the extinction of a species for the export of uranium, for example.

Hear hear.


While Mr. Rann clearly acknowledges that a good policy framework does not allow uranium miners in the Myponga catchment, surely he cannot believe that allowing a Uranium mine in the heart of the Arkaroola sanctuary constitutes good governance?

As Dr. Vogel says, lines will have to be drawn. And if a landscape of the calibre of the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary isn't firmly placed in a 'safe' zone, what can we hope would be protected?

Mr. Rann, the company is not up there merely sating its curiosity. It intends to mine, if you let it. A responsible government must not sacrifice the jewels of our unique natural heritage in a headlong rush to be "the Saudi Arabia of Uranium" (Mike Rann, 17/04/07)

ACT NOW

Write to the Premier and Environment minister asking them to halt the Arkaroola project now. See the 'Now is the Write time' article in this journal for details.