Open Cut: Life on an Australian Frontier

Abstract

In 2003 the international mining giant Glencore purchased McArthur River Mine (MRM) in the southwest Gulf of Carpentaria region of the Northern Territory. Glencore quickly moved to expand the size and nature of the mine from an underground operation to an open-cut pit. The expansion involved diverting the monsoonal McArthur River through a six-kilometre artificial channel and digging a massive open-cut pit in the riverbed. Despite the high environmental risks, Glencore’s sole aim was to get at the zinc, lead and silver ore beneath the river at a minimum financial cost. The digging of a massive open-cut pit also included building a gigantic wasterock pile to permanently stockpile millions of tonnes of acid-forming rock from the pit.