REFERRAL FOR PROPOSED ACTION RANGER 3 DEEPS UNDERGROUND MINE TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. SUMMARY OF PROPOSED ACTION ........................................................................................ 4 1.1 Short description.............................................................................................................. 4 1.2 Latitude and longitude ..................................................................................................... 5 1.3 Locality and property description ..................................................................................... 5 1.4 Size of development footprint or work area ...................................................................... 5 1.5 Street address of the site ................................................................................................. 6 1.6 Lot description ................................................................................................................. 6 1.7 Local Government Area and Council contact ................................................................... 6 1.8 Time frame ...................................................................................................................... 6 1.9 Alternatives to proposed action ........................................................................................ 6 1.10 Alternative time frames .................................................................................................... 6 1.11 State assessment ............................................................................................................ 7 1.12 Component of larger action ............................................................................................. 7 1.13 Related actions/proposals ............................................................................................... 7 1.14 Australian Government funding ....................................................................................... 7 1.15 Great Barrier Reef Marine Park ....................................................................................... 7 2. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PROPOPOSED ACTION .......................................................... 8 2.1 Description of proposed action ........................................................................................ 8 2.2 Alternatives to taking the proposed action ..................................................................... 28 2.3 Alternative locations, time frames or activities that form part of the referred action ........ 29 2.4 Context, planning framework and state/local government requirements ........................ 30 2.5 Environmental impact assessments under Commonwealth, state or territory legislation ...................................................................................................................... 37 2.6 Public consultation (including with Indigenous stakeholders) ......................................... 37 2.7 A staged development or component of a larger project ................................................ 37 3. DESCRIPTION OF ENVRIONMENT AND LIKELY IMPACTS ................................................. 38 3.1 Matters of national environmental significance .............................................................. 38 3.2 Nuclear actions, actions taken by the Commonwealth (or Commonwealth agency), actions taken in a Commonwealth marine area, actions taken on Commonwealth land, or actions taken in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park ................ 60 3.3 Other important features of the environment .................................................................. 60 4. MEASURES TO AVOID OR REDUCE IMPACTS .................................................................... 74 5. CONCLUSION ON THE LIKELIHOOD OF SIGNIFICANT IMPACTS ...................................... 81 5.1 Do you THINK your proposed action is a controlled action? .......................................... 81 5.2 Proposed action IS NOT a controlled action .................................................................. 81 5.3 Proposed action IS a controlled action ........................................................................... 81 6. ENVIRONMENTAL RECORD OF THE RESPONSIBLE PARTY ............................................. 83 7. INFORMATION SOURCES AND ATTACHMENTS.................................................................. 85 7.1 References .................................................................................................................... 85 7.2 Reliability and date of information .................................................................................. 88 7.3 Attachments .................................................................................................................. 88 8. CONTACTS, SIGNATURS AND DECLARATIONS ................................................................. 90 Abbreviations and acronyms ................................................................................................. 91 Chemical symbols and formulae ........................................................................................... 91 Units of measurement ............................................................................................................ 92 List of appendices .................................................................................................................. 93 Referral of proposed action Project title: Ranger 3 Deeps Underground Mine 1 SUMMARY OF PROPOSED ACTION 1.1 Short description This referral outlines Energy Resources of Australia Ltd's (ERA's) proposal to develop and operate an underground mine and associated facilities at the existing Ranger uranium mine, in the Alligator Rivers Region of the Northern Territory (see Figure 1 for regional context). The resource, referred to as Ranger 3 Deeps, has been defined by a series of successive surface diamond drilling programs from 2005–2009. Additional diamond drilling will be undertaken as part of the Ranger 3 Deeps Exploration Decline project, which was approved for construction on 25 August 2011 (as described in Section 1.13 ) and does not form part of the proposed action. This referral is made in parallel to the Ranger 3 Deeps Exploration Decline project, so that ERA can make its decision about underground mining when it has approvals in place to proceed. The proposed action is to mine and process the uranium bearing ore from the Ranger 3 Deeps mineral resource, which is currently estimated to contain 34,000 tonnes of uranium oxide. 1 Mining will be via a series of stopes accessed via a decline allowing material transport to the surface in trucks. The decline constructed as part of the Ranger 3 Deeps Exploration Decline project will also serve as the primary access to the underground mine and is located adjacent to Pit 3. 2 The fixed ventilation system 3 constructed for Ranger 3 Deeps Exploration Decline project will also be utilised for the proposed action and will be expanded to include additional ventilation shafts. 4 A paste fill plant (approximately 100 m3/hr capacity) will be constructed within the footprint of the existing operational area for the purpose of backfilling the mined out stopes (see Section 2.1 ). The main mine workings will be greater than 300 m below the surface. Mineralised material will be transported to the surface and processed at the existing processing plant. Due to the selective nature of the proposed underground mining method, only a relatively small quantity of waste rock will be generated (approximately 0.5 Mt of waste rock, compared to greater than 80 Mt of waste from the mined out Pit 3) (see Section 2.1 ). Processing of the Ranger 3 Deeps ore will not require a change to the existing water management strategies implemented at the Ranger mine. Further, the proposed action will result in only small incremental changes to the ERA's process water and tailings inventories, and will not significantly alter overall closure planning for the Ranger Project Area. 1 More accurate estimates of the resource will be established through the continuing exploration activity and associated geological modelling. These will be reported accordingly. It is likely that within the time frame of the proposed action, and in consideration of mining and processing optimisation only a portion of the defined resource will be extracted. 2 Mining in Pit 3 ceased on 28 November 2012. 3 "Phase 1" of the Ranger 3 Deeps Exploration Decline project, approved in August 2011, includes ducted ventilation along the decline with surface based fans. A second phase of this project will include the construction of a vertical ventilation shaft, in a number of segments from surface to intersect with the exploration decline. This shaft would be converted to a passive air intake as a component of the complete ventilation system for the proposed action. 4 Ventilation shafts (vent raises) perform two functions: a) taking stale air from the decline and exhausting it into the atmosphere via a return air raise; and b) drawing fresh air into the decline via a fresh air raise. Referral: Ranger 3 Deeps underground mine 4 Prepared by L Pugh, P Anderson. Date: 16 January 2013 1.2 Latitude and longitude The Ranger Project Area is the land described in Schedule 2 to the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 5 (Figure 1). The current mining operation is in the southern portion of the Ranger Project Area and constitutes an area of disturbance, including the Jabiru