Mineral Sand Mining in the Murray Darling Basin

Background

The Basin

Environmental Impacts

Ecologically Sustainable Natural Resource Management

The Proposed Developments

Environmental controls (environmental legislation) differ across the three states of SA, Vic and NSW where the mineral sands deposits are located and are inadequate to assess the combined impacts that the developments will have. As the Murray Darling is an integrated ecosystem that inhabits all three states the potential for ecological impacts cannot be underestimated.

The extent of land clearing required compounds the already excessive cleared land in the region. (half of all land clearing in Australia occurs in the basin) The clearing of land is one of the main triggers of salinity.

Disposal and storage of highly saline wastewater can exacerbate salinity problems and contaminate the river system and high quality groundwater resources.

Many endangered species live and feed within the areas proposed to be cleared and mined and inadequate information is available on the extent of this problem or the likely impacts. Protection of biodiversity is a crucial issue in the Murray Darling Basin and mining cannot be allowed to impact upon this.

Several proposed mining projects also border the Willandra lakes World Heritage Area and one proposal is embedded within extensions to the Lake Mungo National Park. The hydrological impact of excessive extraction of groundwater, the impact on threatened species and potential contamination of the groundwater resources threaten the world heritage values of the region.

Impacts on water resources in general are cause for concern especially with a recent major groundwater contamination event occurring at a mineral sand mine in WA. A similar incident in the Basin could be catastrophic. Leaking tailings dams and dredge ponds may contaminate local aquifers and raise water tables.

Environmental flows are not currently guaranteed in the Murray Darling Basin and excessive use of fresh water resources diverted from the rivers places further demands on a scarce resource. The drive of new water management schemes is purported to be the return of significant amounts of water to the river system yet there are several inconsistencies in the mineral sands developments that contradict this goal. Water for the industry taking priority over environmental flows.