Rio Tinto-owned Energy Resources of Australia Ltd (ERA) mines uranium ore and produces drummed uranium oxide at its Ranger mine, 260 km east of Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory. On 28 January 2011 ERA had commenced an orderly suspension of plant processing operations for a period of 12 weeks as a precautionary measure to ensure that levels in the Tailing Storage Facility (TSF) remained below the authorised operating limit. However, ERA has now announced on 12 April 2011 that it will extend the suspension of processing plant operations until late July to allow the total process water inventory at Ranger mine to reduce.

The TSF remains below the authorised operating limit but total process water inventory at Ranger has recently exceeded the level at which operations are able to re-commence. The recommencement of operations is highly dependant on future rainfall, however. ERA states that it has advised regulatory authorities and key stakeholders daily on TSF levels. In addition, due to the large volume of pond water currently in Pit 3, mining operations in the pit have recently ceased and will resume on the upper benches when the water level recedes. ERA said does not expect to obtain access to the high grade ore at the bottom of Pit 3 until at least late 2011 and is commissioning additional pond water treatment capacity to expedite this access.