The NT government has issued a tender to clean up Rum Jungle
The NT government has started the tender process to clean up one of the Territory’s most contaminated precincts. Find out how the process will operate here.
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The Territory government is looking to clean-up one of the Territory’s most toxic sites.
The government has put out expressions of interest for the stage-three clean-up at the old Rum Jungle uranium and copper mine near Batchelor.
The stage three clean-up has been divided into two separate work packages.
A water remediation and pit backfill project had already been filled under an early contractor tender and the civil works and site remediation contracts are part of the latest tender listed on Friday.
Businesses have until June 1 to tender.
According to the tender documents, the rehabilitation strategy has been developed from a detailed understanding of current site conditions, physical and cultural constraints and future land use goals established with Traditional Owners.
The full scope of works for the Stage 3 rehabilitation project plans to address existing contamination at the site and improve prospects for future land use.
The project aims to slow or stop acid and metalliferous drainage from waste rock onsite by consolidating the waste into one of three new facilities.
It is also intended to slow or halt the spread of copper contamination at the site, treat existing groundwater sources including the east branch of the Finniss River, isolate radiological and acid and metalliferous drainage soil, return the East Finniss to its original course and restore poorly vegetated land parcels such as at the old tailings dam.
The tender document said the site is not currently in a condition suitable for land use activities, is fenced and only accessed for site investigations, land management and monitoring works.
The site was declared a restricted use area in 1989 and, according to the tender document, is typical of an open pit legacy mining site, inducing open pits and waste rock dumps.
The civil remediation works will include the construction of access roads and other enabling works, contaminated soil movement, transport of materials for backfill in the main pit, and haulage of clean borrow materials from off-site.
Rum Jungle is located on Kungarakan and Warai country, 105km south of Darwin. Between 1953 and 1971 uranium and copper was mined at the site with additional material mined at Mount Burton and Mount Fitch.
In the 1980s a program of investigation and rehabilitation was undertaken, but in 2009 the Federal and NT government entered into a national partnership agreement to remediate the site.
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