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Beaufort West

Uranium Open Pits

Quaggasfontein 10 km

Beaufort West and Uranium Mining

Beaufort West

Quaggasfontein

43 km Central Processing Plant at Ryst Kuil

DR STEFAN CRAMER, SAFCEI SCIENCE ADVISOR

KAROO URANIUM MINING –

LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND!

Beaufort West 19 August 2016

Southern African Faith Communities‘

Environment Institute (SAFCEI):

• is a multi-faith environment

organisation

• helping religious organisations put

Eco-Faith into action.

Launched

and inspired

by Wangari

Maathai in

2004

SAFCEI Patron

Geoff Davies

2014

Our multi-

faith board

A modern translation of Genesis 2:15

… actually it does! Think groundwater, or climate change…

South Africa from the International Space Station, on June 1, 2016

Uranium mining?

Beautiful farms in the Karoo…

… or damaged lands after uranium mining?

How a new uranium mill near Beaufort West would look like

1.What actually is uranium?

2.What is planned and where?

3.How it may look like?

4.What is the current situation?

5.What are the possible consequences?

6.But what about jobs?

7.Who is behind these plans?

and

8. What can we do to stop it?

What I want to present over the next 30 minutes:

1. What actually is uranium?

A piece of uranium ore from Ryst Kuil

Radioactivity

Radiation – Radioactivity : is it the same?

Radioactivity is

the nature of

particles that

emit radiation

A truck loaded with uranium ore is passing by.

emits weak radiation for a short while

But the radioactive dust stays behind for long

Sorry: a bit more of

nuclear physics

Uranium Decay Series

Two uses: nuclear power stations, and…

1000 kg uranium-235 replace 3 million tons of coal

Radiation therapy with radionuclides

Nuclear weapons…

Depleted uranium in missiles and bullets

Tank-breaking but with horrible health consequences

An old and new threat: Uranium Mining in the Karoo!

World uranium mining: since 1940 Canada

USA France

Germany

Ukraine

Kazakhstan USSR / Russia

Niger

Congo

South Africa Namibia

China

Australia

Active mine

Suspended

Under development

Uranium mining in Southern Africa

Husab Rössing

L. Heinrich

Trekkopje

Karoo

Springbok Flats

Lethlakane

Kayakelera

Chirundu Kanyemba

Valencia

Madagascar

Uranium deposits in South Africa

2. What was planned and where?

? ? ?

What was planned and where?

P P P

P

The new map of Karoo uranium mining?

The new map of Karoo uranium mining

Beaufort West

WINTERBERG SECTION

George

Mossel Bay

Oudtshoorn Calitzdorp

Prince Albert Laingsburg

Touwsrivier

Leeu-Gamka Merweville

Beaufort West

Gouritz Catchment

Gouritz Catchment

Breede Catchment

Uranium Mining

Exploration Concessions

The South African Dream?? To revitalize the nuclear downstream industry and supply Africa with enriched uranium…

Enrichment plant PELINDABA near Pretoria

The final product: the so-called „yellow cake“

70% to 90% triuranium octoxide (U3O8)

U-238

This how low-level nuclear waste is stored in South Africa!

3. How it may look like?

Tailings dams like in Johannesburg

Reactor tanks for uranium recovery

Open pit mining of uranium ore from sandstones

Drilling and blasting creates large plumes of dust

Loading uranium ore on a dump truck

Average wind directions and speed 1996/2016

Radioactive dust will affect the nearby towns and the KNP

Rietkuil

Ryst Kuil Merweville

Leeu Gamka

Karoo National Park

Beaufort West

4. What is the current situation in the Karoo?

Ryst Kuil Trial Mine between Beaufort West and Rietbron

Incline adit to underground mine

High-grade uranium ore in open air

Low-grade uranium ore in open air

Contaminated ore crusher

Rietkuil

Case study: Rietkuil trial mine

Experimental uranium mine site operated by Union Carbide in 1979

Open Pit

Spoil

Uranium ore heaps

Public road Beaufort West to Merweville

Case study: Rietkuil trial mine

Riet Kuil Uranium Channel

Karoo National Park

Case study: Rietkuil trial mine

An unprotected and unregulated radioactive mine site with no warnings or access limitations

Case study: Rietkuil trial mine

Grazing animals next to high-grade uranium ore

Case study: Rietkuil trial mine

Case study: Rietkuil trial mine

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400

600

800

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23.02.2016 09:5023.02.2016 10:0423.02.2016 10:1923.02.2016 10:3323.02.2016 10:4823.02.2016 11:0223.02.2016 11:1623.02.2016 11:3123.02.2016 11:4523.02.2016 12:0023.02.2016 12:14

RIET KUIL Counts per minute, measured with certified instrument

Case study: Rietkuil trial mine

0,3 0,2

0,3

0,2

3,9

3,3

7,3

0,9

1,3 2,9

2,2 0,5

0,9

1,2

Open Pit Uranium Mine Rietkuil

Rietkuil Dam

Unpro- tected

entrance gate

High-grade uranium ore stockpiles

Low-grade spoils from

open pit Radioactive Wastes

Gamma-Radiation measured in µS/h, an acceptable level for public exposure is 0,2 µS/h

3,9

5,7

Radiation Hotspots

GPS Coordinates

NNR Report: whitewashing the company and the NNR!

Monitoring the monitors

Waste disposal at Ryst Kuil – the legacy for thousands of

years

2 3

20

100

130+

mS/annum

Riet Kuil

Background /Safe level

Nuclear workplace

Case study: Rietkuil trial mine

South Africa is signatory to the

“Convention on the Physical Protection of

Nuclear Material”

Gamma radiation from mining wastes 40 times

permissible level

Barrels filled with uranium ore – abandoned at Ryst Kuil

Damaged uranium ore barrels at Ryst Kuil

Uranium ore is used for farm roads at Ryst Kuil

Toxic waste water seeps into the groundwater

Animals can freely roam around

and can still this today!

seen in February 2016

5. What are the possible consequences?

1.Health problems from radiation

and dust

2.Water shortage and contamination

3.Spillage from tailings dams into the

river system

4.Traffic and accidents on dust roads

1. even one radioactive dust particle can cause lung cancer

There is no safe level of radiation. Any amount of radiation can have a health impact.

On 26 April 1986 the Chernobyl Nuclear

Power Plant in Ukraine exploded.

350,400 people were evacuated and

had to be resettled.

A dear was born with six legs

Liver cancer in goats near Mongolian uranium mines

Scottish sheep farmers still stuck under a Chernobyl cloud 23 years later

Epidemiology in the Karoo

Huge Water Consumption

• PENINSULA ENERGY has applied for a license to use

1,400 billion litres annually for its Central Processing

Plant alone

• That is the nearly the total water consumption of the

entire Central Karoo Municipality!

700 million litres: Imagine a line of 20-l-buckets from Beaufort-West to Jo‘burg and return

Lowering of the regional gorundwater table

Uranium open pit, approx.

Groundwater impact, potential

Sout Rivier disrupted

and horrible road accidents

6. But what about socio-economic development?

RENEWABLES CREATE MORE JOBS THAN FOSSIL FUELS

How many farm jobs

will be lost??

RENEWABLES

FOSSIL FUELS

0

50.000

100.000

150.000

200.000

250.000

300.000

350.000

400.000

450.000

Jobs Currently DuringConstruction:

Low Estimate for2027

High Estimate for2027

During Operation: Low Estimate for2027

High Estimate for2027

2.600 15.000

30.000

4.800 6.000

28.000

300.000

450.000

75.000

100.000

Nuclear

Renewable

6. Who is behind these plans?

Gus Simpson, Executive Chairman

FUKUSHIMA-DAICHI

Speculation gap

Lance Project in Wyoming / USA

Can only be operated with a water licence exemption by the EPA

The money trail: 2012

Pala Investments Ltd.

Pala Investments Limited was founded in July 2006 and is based Jersey, United Kingdom with an additional office in Zug, Switzerland. www.pala.com Key Executives for Pala Investments Limited Mr. Evgenij Iorich (Russian) Vice President

Evgeniy Iorich, Russian billionaire,

son of Vladimir Iorich Russian-born 1980, German citizenship in 1995 Lives in Switzerland. PALA Office in Gotthardstrasse 26 in Zug/Switzerland

TOP 20 Shareholders of PENINSULA ENERGY as of 30 June 2016

There is a 28 % BEE partner operating under the name

of LUKISA JV Company (Ltd)

Their director: Andile Nkuhlu

• owner of LUKISA INVEST 100 and MAGO RESOURCES

• a former ANCYL leader, crony of then Brett Kebble

• became Chief Director in the Department of Public Enterprises (1996 – 2004, suspended in 2002) and

• co-founder of the Congress of People (COPE) but went back to the ANC

• Was Executive Director at Nkwe Platinum Plc

• Passed away in December 2015

Tefo Maloisane

8. What can we do to stop it?

1.Information

2.Consultation

3.Education

4.Legal challenges

5.Monitoring

1. Information: Exploration drilling near Rietbron

Training of Emerging Farmers in Loxton

With black girls from township primary schools

with black boys from a township eco-club

2. A public consultation?

3. Education is urgently required

4. Legal challenges: High Court in Pretoria

5. Monitoring: Even the exploration boreholes are

contaminated

Let us say: NO TO URANIUM MINING IN THE KAROO