The Rehabilitation of Whites Overburden Heap

The Rum Jungle mine was operated by Territory Enterprises Pty Ltd who mined uranium on behalf of the Australian Government with operations spanning the period from 1953 to the final closure of the mine in 1971. In addition to the extraction of uranium from the open cut pits, copper, manganese and lead were mined and processed at Rum Jungle. During the latter part of the operation, and after the closure of the mine, environmental studies were carried out which were aimed at determining the causes of the pollution at Rum Jungle and identifying a rehabilitation strategy for the mine site. These studies identified sources of heavy metal and acid pollution and proposed a rehabilitation strategy which consisted of 1. recontour, construct impervious covers and controlled surface drainage on, and revegetate three overburden heaps,