Uranium mining in Kakadu National Park

Kakadu National Park, located in the Northern Territory of Australia, possesses within its boundaries a number of large uranium deposits.

[1] This controversy is significant because it involves a number of important political issues in Australia: Native Title, the environment, and Federal-State-Territory relations.

[2] Kakadu National Park is on the World Heritage List, both for its cultural and natural value, a rare feat because few sites are featured for both reasons.

Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) pays 4.25% of its gross sales revenue plus an annual rental of $200,000 for the use of the land and Ranger has paid over $200 million in royalties since 1980.

The committee could only "expresses its deep regret" that the voluntary suspension of construction of the mine decline at Jabiluka has not taken place, and was "gravely concerned" about the serious impacts to the living cultural values of the park.

[12] In 2010, Jeffrey Lee, an Aboriginal landowner, offered thousands of hectares of his land to the Federal Government on the condition that it be added to Kakadu National Park.

[15] Research and monitoring conducted since 1978 by the Australian Government's Supervising Scientist for the Alligator Rivers Region has indicated that uranium mining at Ranger has not resulted in any harm to the environment of Kakadu National Park.

[16] As of March 2009, the Ranger uranium mine is leaking 100,000 litres per day of contaminated water into the ground beneath the Kakadu National Park, according to a government appointed scientist.

[17] Opponents of uranium mining in the Alligator Rivers region claim that these benefits have not reached local communities of traditional land owners, who remain poorly resourced, under-employed, and economically disadvantaged.