1. Mining & the South Australian Environment
● Dan Monceaux
Documentary Filmmaker, Cuttlefish Country

2. Iron Ore from the Middleback
Ranges, SA

3. Iron Monarch, Middleback Ranges
circa 1900

4. Iron Monarch
today
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6. Shipping from Whyalla in 1903
●
...& 2007

7. Bottlenose Dolphin
Giant Australian Cuttlefish
Whyalla's iconic marine life

8. World War II drives Whyalla's industry

9. Whyalla Shipyards (1940 - 1978)

10. SANTOS & the Cooper Basin (Moomba)
● South Australia Northern Territory oil Search formed in 1954 to explore.
● Commercial gas was struck in 1963
● Moomba gas plant established in 1968
● Pipelines to supply Adelaide, Sydney & soon Gladstone (for LNG)

11. SANTOS at Port Bonython (Whyalla)
● Oil was struck in the Cooper Basin in 1970
● Port Bonython was established in 1982 for refinery & export
● Over 1000 shipments since creation... BUT...

12. Port Bonython & the Environment
● 1992 - Major oil spill in 1992 (300 tonnes)
● 2008 - Hydrocarbons contamination in groundwater identified
● 2012 - Still no EPA prosecution for current problem

13. Olympic Dam - Copper & Uranium
● 1975 struck massive body of copper, uranium, gold & silver
● Western Mining & BP Australia joint venture, bought by
BHP Billiton, June 2005

14. SA – The Uranium State
● Ore first discovered in early 1900's at Mount Painter & Radium Hill
● Radium was refined at Dry Creek, Adelaide (1920's, 30's)
● Uranium production commenced for military purposes during WWII at
UK and USA's request
● Radium Hill mine established in 1954, with processing plant following at
Port Pirie.
● Exports from Port Pirie & Port Adelaide continue
● 2000 – smaller mines Beverley, Honeymoon, Four Mile & others pending
● SACOME supports possible nuclear power future for SA

15. Mount Painter
Olympic Dam
International customers

16. SA's Uranium Mining Legacies
● Radium Hill mine workers' cancers attributed to poor underground
ventilation and tailings exposure
● Port Pirie and Dry Creek processing plants forgotten until the
1980's, children played on and swam in radioactive tailings dams
● Tailings ponds at Olympic Dam are a growing, open air radioactive
waste repository
● Myponga mine site, not fenced, sign-posted or remediated. Others?
● Contamination of Japan from nuclear fuel, distributed by
Fukushima Daiichi Reactors (March 2011)

17. SA's Exploration Boom (on now)
● PACE Program - State Government subsidised drilling
● Drilling and seismic surveying is widespread, land and sea
● Miners now face water scarcity, power and infrastructure shortfalls
● Lack of infrastructure makes business here expensive
● Olympic Dam expansion was over-sold by politicians
● Projects relying on Olympic Dam have suffered
● New miners exposed to China Slowdown and global economics

18. Major mines in SA

19. Mineral Exploration Tenements

20. Petroleum Exploration Tenements

21. Sources & further reading:
● “Above & Below - SA Dept. of Mines & Energy 1944-1994”
Bernard O'Neil, 1995
● “A Ribbon of Steel – Whyalla Surges Ahead”
Sue Scheiffers, 1985
● “Mining in South Australia – A Pictorial History”
J.F. Drexel, 1982
● South Australian Resources Information Geoserver (SARIG)
https://sarig.pir.sa.gov.au/Map
● “Cuttlefish Country” documentary film, campaign & news website
http://cuttlefishcountry.com
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