A mineral sand mine which has been approved in Victoria’s west could soon be producing uranium for export using a loophole in the state's ban on mining the radioactive mineral. Farmers in the region say the uncertainty around the impact of uranium mining on prime farmland has them worried about their future.
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00:00Let's have a look at these barleys.
00:03Ryan Milgate has grown crops in Western Victoria all his life, but he believes his livelihood
00:09is now under threat because a proposed mineral sands mine near his property wants to export
00:14uranium.
00:15With a mine next door I'm just really uncertain what the future will bring and what it will
00:20look like.
00:21Astron Corporation's Rare Earth and Mineral Sands project at Donald was approved in 2008.
00:27Among the minerals being mined will be monazite and xenotime, which contain elements crucial
00:32for clean energy products like EV batteries.
00:36When those elements are extracted it leaves a concentrate containing small amounts of
00:40the radioactive elements uranium and thorium and it's this by-product that US company Energy
00:46Fuels wants to buy.
00:49It's paying Astron $183 million to export the concentrate to the US where it will extract
00:55the uranium at its White Mesa mill in Utah.
00:59And this is where it gets complicated.
01:01Mining uranium in Victoria has been banned since the 1980s, but Astron says the radioactive
01:07material is simply a by-product of the mining process and is exempt from the legislation.
01:14It's a move which has angered anti-nuclear campaigners.
01:18The Act prohibits the mining of uranium.
01:21It's got bipartisan support, it has enjoyed bipartisan support since 1983 and it should
01:27be strengthened to remove that loophole.
01:30Victoria has amongst the strongest environmental laws in the country.
01:34Astron says the estimated dose of radiation to workers and the public are well below the
01:38recommended limit, while radiation experts say it's only the leftover concentrate that's
01:43considered radioactive.
01:45The processing is done in a confined shed and bagged in confined containers that are
01:52then transported from sites and none of that is open to the environment.
01:57Ryan Milgate has been attending a series of community meetings in Minyip to raise his
02:02concerns.
02:03Everything suggests that there's no community issues around the levels of radiation involved
02:08in mining, but certainly we hope they get that right.
02:15Astron expects to begin mining at Donald in late 2025.