Olympic Dam mine
From Envirowiki
Olympic Dam mine, otherwise known as Roxby Downs, is situated in South Australia, about 560km north of Adelaide. It is primarily a copper mine but also mines significant amounts of uranium ore. Roxby Downs is Australia's largest underground mine and also the world's largest uranium resource. It is now 100% operated and owned by BHP Billiton but used to be a joint operation with Western Mining Corporation (WMC).
[edit] Roxby Downs Indenture Act 1982
The Roxby Downs Indenture Act 1982 means that the mine is exempt from, among other things, parts of the environment protection act, the Aboriginal heritage protection act[reference needed], the water conservation act [reference needed] and the freedom of information act[reference needed].
[edit] Roxby Downs and water usage
BHP has a license to draw 37 million liters of water per day from the Great Artesian Basin, but it routinely draws up to 42 million liters a day. BHP does not pay for a drop of this water-the fact that they payed for and installed the pumps is apparently good enough an excuse to justify this atrocity. BHP also sells some of the water (that they do not pay for) to the township of Roxby Downs. Drawing such a significant quantity of water from the Great Artesian basin is causing the nearby Mound Springs to slowly dry up. The Mound Springs are natural mineral springs that are sacred sites of Arabunna country. They are situated on the tops of little mounds in the middle of what would appear as an otherwise dry and arid desert environment. Because of this the bubbling springs sustain a myriad of extremely unique flora and fauna.
