BHP Billiton has ruled out a dedicated rail link to its $500 million Yeelirrie uranium project near Wiluna, despite rejecting road-only transport options because of the higher accident risk.
BHP Billiton has ruled out a dedicated rail link to its $500 million Yeelirrie uranium project near Wiluna, despite rejecting road-only transport options because of the higher accident risk.
Releasing its environmental scoping documents for public comment this week, BHP said its preferred transport option was to truck uranium oxide 250 kilometres south to the existing rail terminal at Leonora.
From there it would be transferred on to rail and sent to South Australia, via Kalgoorlie.
As an alternative, BHP said it could truck the oxide 490km to Kalgoorlie, where it would be transferred onto rail for despatch to South Australia.
In both instances, the material would then be shipped out of either Darwin or Adelaide, the only Australian ports currently licensed to export uranium.
At full production of 3,500 tonnes of uranium oxide a year, BHP expects to transport 150 six-metre-long steel containers annually, or up to five truckloads per week. The oxide will be packed in sealed 205 litre steel drums inside the container.
BHP said the material was only “mildly radioactive” and that transporting it by road and rail did not represent any significant hazard due to its packing and handling procedures. It also noted that 10,000 containers of similar material had been shipped from Australia without incident since the early 1980s.
But it ruled out a road-only transport option, saying it was not considered ideal because of higher accident rates for road transport, the greater risk of non-radioactive pollution, greater interaction with local communities, and security and communication issues.
Nonetheless, a spokeswoman for BHP said the small production volumes made a dedicated rail link from the mine to Leonora unviable.
Nor had BHP considered other proposed alternatives, most notably the planned Oakajee port, which is due to come onstream at the same time as Yeelirrie in 2014 and is likely to ultimately include a rail link to Wiluna.
“The Yeelirrie Project is focused on utilising currently approved transport routes and facilities,” BHP’s spokeswoman said, adding that WA ports had also been ruled out as none was licensed to export uranium at this stage.
“(But) we would look at other options as they become available and investigate/assess them accordingly,” she said.
BHP’s plans are open for public comment until February 22.
The public also has until February 22 to comment on Burrup Fertilisers’ planned $US600 million ammonium nitrate plant near Karratha.
Burrup plans to commence construction of the 350,000t per annum plant next to its existing ammonia plant
on the Burrup Peninsula by the end of the year. Ammonium nitrate is an industrial explosive.