Mining lease loophole offers soil solution

Charters Towers Regional Council is set to resume the city's water park building works within the next couple of months after finding a new avenue for removal of contaminated material. With low levels of gold detected and a mining lease covering the council land involved, the material is now being treated as a resource and shifted to the Ravenswood Gold site. When excavation for the water park kicked off mid-year, unsuitable ground forced the project to go deeper than expected - subsequently revealing low-level lead contamination. Mayor Frank Beveridge said the council had contacted the Department of Environment and Science to put a plan in place to treat the material to allow the project to move forward. “Due to the land use being for the future park, council must undertake more intensive works which includes full removal of the contaminated soil," he said. “Council identified that some of the contaminated soil had been moved to several private properties by the subcontractor which will also need to be removed. “We’ve looked at a few different options which included remediation on site, moving the material to the Stubley Street Landfill and moving the material to the Townsville Landfill at Vantassel Street, Stuart. "The first two options were considered unviable or not permitted, and the third option was costed at over $1 million. “Fortunately, we were given another option as the site is located on a current mining lease. After further testing revealed low levels of gold, the material was classed as a resource.” The necessary permits were put in place to transfer the mining lease covering the site - on the corner of Water and Burdekin streets - from Citigold to the Ravenswood Gold processing plant under an amended Environmental Authority. The works to move the material from the Water Park site and private properties commenced on September 29 and are expected to take until the end of November. Funding for the Water Park through the Federal Governments Local Roads and Community Infrastructure program has been extended to 30 June 2022. Charters Towers Regional Council is working with the Queensland Government Department of State Development, Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning to extend their funding through the Works for Queensland program. “At this point, we don’t know the additional costs associated with the delay and removal of material but we’re anticipating the cost to be approximately $750,000, which will be funded from council’s current budget savings or through the reserves," Cr Beveridge said. “We’re excited to be able to move forward with this project and make it safe for the community. We look forward to opening the park in June 2022.”

Mining lease loophole offers soil solution

Industry Queensland

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