Mining companies operating in Western Australia’s Mid-West are in talks with the proponents of a $2 billion astronomy project to try and resolve potential conflicts.
Mining companies operating in Western Australia’s Mid-West are in talks with the proponents of a $2 billion astronomy project to try and resolve potential conflicts.
WA is competing with South Africa for the right to host the Square Kilometre Array, which will be the largest and most sensitive radio telescope ever built.
The key attraction of both regions is their ‘radio-quiet’ status.
To affirm strong support for WA’s SKA bid, the Federal and State governments are consulting on a ‘Band Plan’ with the Australian Communications Media Authority (ACMA), which aims to increase the radio-quiet protection for the SKA.
The CSIRO’s Dr Brian Boyle, who heads Australia’s SKA bid, told WA Business News a number of mining companies had voiced concerns about the proposed Band Plan and its effect on company activities.
“A number of mining companies have asked about what they can do to be compatible with the new Band Plan,” Dr Boyle said. “We’re about providing them the certainty and security that they need, as well as providing the protection that we need.”
A Radio Quiet Zone (RQZ) was created at the Murchison Radio-Astronomy Observatory (MRO), 200km east of Meekatharra, which imposes restrictions on companies carrying out operations within that area.
The current issue follows earlier differences between miners and the SKA project.
In 2006, trucking activity associated with Murchison Metals’ mining operation at Jack Hills was disrupting the radio quiet conditions.
That forced the SKA’s central site to shift from Mileura station to a back-up site 90 kilometres west at Boolardy station.
The RQZ may also pose problems for future projects.
Oakajee Port and Rail spokesperson Elizabeth Archer said OPR was in talks with the state government and the CSIRO to reach a solution regarding the project’s railway line.
“A portion of our proposed rail does fall within the proposed radio quiet zone. OPR has made submissions to the ACMA with respect to Mid-West radio quiet zone and we believe the Mid-West infrastructure and resource development would be able to co-exist with them,” Ms Archer said.
The Director of WA’s International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, Peter Quinn, said that based on past experience, the affected companies should be confident that an appropriate outcome could be achieved.
“This kind of give and take that has already occurred will continue to occur. I don’t think there are any insurmountable technical challenges here; I think there will be technical solutions allowing the miners to do their job and radio astronomers to do their job,” he said.
Professor Quinn said it was important for the government to be flexible and impose “radio quietness and not radio silence”.
“Telescopes have always been built in remote and unique places around the world and there is always some aspect that other people are interested in as well. It may be social reasons, like indigenous communities or commercial reasons, like mining,” he said.
The MRO is home to two precursor telescopes, the Australian SKA Pathfinder telescope and the Murchison Wide Field Array.
Dr Boyle said that in order to give Australia the edge over South Africa in the SKA bid, maintaining radio quietness of the MRO was paramount.
“WA has a very strong case in terms of radio quietness. It’s emptier than South Africa, so easier to configure the array and WA also has significant infrastructure, including an existing fibre-optic network,” he said.
The issues in WA have parallels in South Africa, where concern has been expressed about the impact of shale gas projects on that country’s SKA bid.
An international consortium will make a final decision on the SKA site by the first half of 2012.
