Tellus Holdings developing plans for possible Central Australia toxic waste dump

A proposed hazardous waste disposal facility in Central Australia is back on the drawing-board, three years after the developer shelved the plan. Find out the latest.

Chandler project.

A proposed hazardous waste disposal facility in Central Australia is back on the drawing-board, three years after the developer shelved the plan.

Tellus Holdings is developing detailed plans to build a potentially billion-dollar dollar waste facility in conjunction with a salt mine at Maryvale Station, about 120km south of Alice Springs and 25km southwest of Titjikala community.

First granted NT Government major project status in 2014, Tellus scrapped the plan in 2021 to focus instead on developing a domestic waste facility in Western Australia.

Nate Smith from Tellus

During a presentation at Resources Week in Darwin on Thursday, Tellus head of external affairs Ryan Bloxsom told delegates that with the Sandy Ridge waste facility now operating, the company had returned its focus to the NT’s Chandler project.

“Our original approach some years ago was to seek Indigenous approval for a salt mine project, which would also facilitate a hazardous waste facility,” Mr Bloxsom said.

“With the benefit of hindsight and our experience in Western Australia, we can understand this may have been perceived by some as Tellus sugar-coating exactly what was being proposed.

Tallus’ Sandy Ridge facility

“When we returned 18 months ago to Chandler, we came with a fresh management team and we took a different approach to engagement. With the need to build trust in our relationships in the community, we realised there was no substitute for being completely upfront about our

project.

“We made it very clear Chandler primarily would be a hazardous waste facility, with the salt mining aspect secondary, not the other way around.”

Last November the company won support from native title holders to build the facility, with the salt mine underpinning development of the waste disposal component.

Tellus chief executive Nate Smith said Australia produces more hazardous waste per person than any other country and there is demand for a storage facility in the Asia-Pacific region.

“There is a need to have a safe place to put all of this hazardous waste that comes from this green energy transition,” Mr Smith said.

“As we transition to this new green economy, and we expect our partners in the Pacific to do the same, there’s a need to have a safe place to put all of this hazardous waste that comes from the transition.

Chandler project chief executive Nate Smith.

“Name a technology up there and it creates waste. Everything from solar panels with lead and cadmium in the panels, polysillicons, hazardous oils. Windmill blades are a real challenge and for every one-tonne of rare earths created for Tesla car batteries or satellites, it creates almost 2000 tonnes of waste.”

He said the central Australian site had been chosen for its remote location but also to facilitate future NT economic development.

“We see Chandler as an enabling piece of infrastructure to basically guarantee the Territory can launch any project it wants for the next 100 years and do it safely and economically and there will be no concerns hazardous waste can’t be dealt with.”

In addition to the waste, Tellus wants to extract salt and export up to 800,000 tonnes of the product out of Port Darwin.

The company is targeting 35 per cent Indigenous employment but is first dependent on securing a major signatory to the new waste facility and, in conjunction with global contractor Amentum, is finetuning its plan before heading to market.

“The key is we will need an initial base-load contract whether it’s the Northern Territory government or a large company, but someone will have to sign up to the first contract to underwrite the financing.”

The Central Land Council has been contacted for comment.

Originally published as Tellus Holdings developing plans for possible Central Australia toxic waste dump