Dennis A. Mwalongo. Ideas to Action: Building a Sustainable Uranium Framework for Tanzania

Transcription

1 Leadership Academy on Sustainable Uranium and Critical Materials Production from Phosphates and Other Sources Swiss International Hotel, Nanchang, CHINA August 2015 Ideas to Action: Building a Sustainable Uranium Framework for Tanzania Dennis A. Mwalongo

2 Presentation Outline Introduction Uranium Exploration and Resources An Idea for Review IAEA Uranium Production Site Appraisal Team (UPSAT) Terms of Reference Some findings and recommendations Genesis of EU Project IAEA HTGR CRP Conclusion

3 Introduction Extensive uranium exploration and feasibility studies found several sites with economically viable uranium deposits The Manyoni, Bahi and Mkuju River Project The Mkuju River Project, located in the Selous Game Reserve, a classified United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site in the south of the country UNESCO World Heritage Committee in July 2012 approved a minor boundary change to the Selous Game Reserve allowing the uranium site to be licensed

4 Major Uranium Explorations Projects Introduction

5 Introduction Regulatory overlaps Three key regulatory mandates: Mining, Environment and Radiation Health The overlapping Government Departments: Ministry of energy and Minerals Tanzania Atomic Energy Commission, National Environmental Management, ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism

6 Uranium Exploration and Resources Deposit Resources (tu) Type Operator Manyoni district-zone A 1771 Surficial Uranex NL Manyoni district-zone C Surficial Uranex NL Manyoni district-zone C West 347 Surficial Uranex NL Manyoni district-zone E 2079 Surficial Uranex NL Manyoni district-zone F 462 Surficial Uranex NL Manyoni district-zone G 655 Surficial Uranex NL Likuyu North 2308 Sandstone Uranex NL Mtonya 770 Sandstone Uranium Resources Nyota Sandstone Uranium One TOTAL SOURCE: IAEA UPSAT Mission Report 2013

7 Mkuju River Project (MRP): Tenements and Special Mining Licence SML Legend SGR Boundary Prospecting Licenses The Mkuju River Project consists of 36 licences In various stages of application and renewal Special Mining Licence for MRP Area excised from Selous Game Reserve (SGR)

8 An Idea for Review The Country self-appraisal on the readiness to regulate uranium mining, esp. in an environmentally sensitivity area The preparedness for overseeing the Uranium mining was necessary IAEA deployed experts for Uranium Production Site Appraisal Team

9 IAEA URANIUM PRODUCTION SITE APPRAISAL TEAM (UPSAT)

10 Objective Identification of areas that required improvement and the formulation of recommendations for introduction of improved practices

11 Review Team No Expert Name Task 1 Keith Baldry Regulatory Affairs 2 Julian Hilton) Capacity Building& Social Licensing 3 Sylvain St. Pierre, Health, Safety, Environment 4 Henry Schnell, Uranium Process Operations and Engineering 5 Fan Zhiwen, IAEA (Environment/ Waste Management) 6 Hari Tulsidas, Geology / Fuel Cycle

12 TERMS OF REFERENCE 1.Regulatory Framework 2.Sustainable Uranium Production 3.Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) 4.Capacity Building 5.Social License to Operate

13 SOME FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

14 1. Regulatory System (1/2) Aligned with IAEA systems Overlap between MEM and TAEC Special Mining Licence does not have a hold point before operations Recommendations The Government Departments should Commit to removing overlaps Regulatory hold point between design, construction, commissioning and operation, and a process to manage transition

15 Recommendations Regulatory System (2/2) Commitment -Policy -Memorandum of Understanding between Ministries Effective working arrangements Task Force MEM, TAEC, NEMC, MNRT Administrative Agreement Regulatory responsibilities Monitoring and inspection coordination Use of technical capabilities (eg radiation laboratory) Sharing of information External communications protocol

16 2. Sustainable uranium production life-cycle (1/4) Good Practice Care and attention to personnel safety Observations World class in terms of ore tonnage processed Located in a remote area with challenging access Suggestions The size of the contemplated ore mining rates needs careful review from a logistical point of view trucking movement, worker rotation, materials control, etc. Road systems, traffic safety and site access will require careful attention and planning. Make use of existing experience from other high tonnage metal mining projects, including the existing high tonnage operation in Tanzania

17 Sustainable uranium production life-cycle (2/4) Good Practice Optimize resource recovery Minimize negative environmental long-term effects Observations Initial flowsheet development had a beneficiation stage that then resulted in beneficiation tailings and leach tailings. The flowsheet has evolved to a 100% ore leach circuit in which coarse and fines are separated after leaching. The coarse material will then be filtered and transported by conveyor to the SCATS tailing area. Fine material is treated with RIP, solids neutralised and pumped to fine tailings (TFS) It is not clear how the coarse solids are treated before disposal Current design recovery is at 87% of uranium Suggestions Consider recombining the tailings (SCATS and TSF) and placing in one area and moving to in-it disposal as mined out areas become available Review the TSF area in terms of dam design, geotechnical stability as the tailings area is filled.

18 Sustainable uranium production life-cycle (3/4) Good Practice Minimize foot print of mine site In-pit or cell tailings placement is preferred Observations There are several individual open pits; plan to place tailings in two separate areas. In-pit placement does not fit the site topography or mine planning The separated fines and coarse solids will result in a poor settling fines component Suggestions : Consider recombining the tailings (SCATS and TSF) for placement in one area and moving to in-pit disposal as mined out areas become available Review the TSF area in terms of dam design, geotechnical stability and solution confinement as the tailings area is filled.

19 Sustainable uranium production life-cycle (4/4) Good Practice Minimize Environmental effects Observations The fines tailings placement (TFS) requires a significant dam structure located on poorly consolidate lithological setting Suggestions : Final detailed design is still required for the dam, but will require careful expert review Consider a cell tailings disposal with intermediate containment to avoid a large catastrophic failure. Review effects of increased neighbouring ground conditions as tailings height increases

20 3. Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) The ESIA needs to be updated (from preliminary plans) to reflect current plans Current plans differ considerably: e.g. tailings and scats are located at different locations Plans on TSF management are not sufficiently detailed Not much on the mill either A hands-on radiation assessment of workers exposures is missing and of related optimized site configuration (vs main sources) Baseline data on radon, soil, vegetation, biota was not available at the time of the ESIA

21 4. SOCIAL LICENSING Observations Varying Public acceptance seems better at local/regional level than national Misconceptions and misunderstandings negative impact on public awareness and understanding Inferior project narrative as compared with opponents No clear risk communications strategy Suggestions Build a structured stakeholder engagement plan; includes realistic appraisal and management of stakeholder expectations Aim at win/win equilibrium between shareholder and stakeholder interest Implement a Community Consultative Committee (CCC) Follow Triple Bottom Line (TBL) cooperative game model

22 5. Capacity Building Good Practice Competency based, by job type Uses a five-tier progressive model (or equivalent) Referenced to international standards and good practices (IAEA, ISO 9000/01, 14000, 17025, 18000) Impact of outputs and outcomes measured against Triple Bottom Line (TBL) Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) economic, social, environmental (integral to social licensing)

23 Implementation Plan: Milestone Driven Competency - based Training Operational Milestones Special Permit Regulatory Readiness and Capability Construction Start Mining/ Milling Start Yellowcake Shipment Mine Closure Handback to URT Source: IAEA UPSAT Mission 2013

24 Suggestions Capacity Building Tie to/ align with major project milestones Coordinate closely with objectives in regulatory harmonisation and social licensing (milestone focus) Emphasise transferability of skills and competencies ie of (80%) use: whether or not this particular project proceeds outside U mining, and even beyond mining in general Track and report progress and impact (value-add) based on TBL KPIs IAEA Technical Cooperation - URT national project should be proposed to support these activities.

25 Outcome of the IAEA UPSAT Mission

26 GENESIS OF THE EU SUPPORT EU Delegation joined the IAEA UPSAT mission briefed on the country s legislation compliance to international standards Shortfalls overlap and confusion between regulators MEM, TAEC, NEMC, SUMATRA and TPF Need for harmonisation of legislation and definition of roles and responsibilities of different Ministries and institutions involved must be performed.

27 EU offer and sub-projects 4 Million Euros Highlighting four sub-projects centred on specific objectives : 1. Enhancing the legal and regulatory framework related to uranium mining and milling and associated transport; 2. Support to the Tanzanian government for the use of the Dar Es Salaam seaport for uranium transport and export; 3. Regional outreach on uranium regulatory framework and nuclear/radiation safety education and training; 4. Strengthening the technical capabilities of the Tanzanian Atomic Energy Commission (TAEC).

28 Ideas about U, Th and REE in Phosphate Rock?

29 Minjingu Phosphate Rock Minjingu phosphate Rock is a lacustrine-biogenic deposit situated in the northern Tanzania Discovered by Goldfields of South Africa Ltd. (GSA) in July 1956 by radiometric mapping After detailed pitting, drilling and trenching surveys during the period from 1957 to 1959 the total ore reserve was estimated to: 4.4 Million tonnes Soft Rock 4.5 Million tonnes Hard rock total average 8.7% P (20% P2O5) Recently over 50 Mt discovered about 7 km from the current plant It is suitable for direct application in P deficient soils in humid to subhumid areas of East Africa It s excellent performance in larger range of agro-ecological conditions has been overly studied

30 Public Concern on Minjingu Phosphate Fertilizer Natural radioactivity and radiation exposure at the Minjingu phosphate mine is well studied High concentrations of radium-226 were observed in phosphate rock Bq kg -1 Waste rock Bq kg -1 Wild leaf vegetation -650 Bq kg -1 edible leaf vegetation -393 Bq kg -1 surface water -4.7 Bq kg -1 Chicken feed -4 Bqkg -1 Public perception : Minjingu Phosphate is Radioactive?

31 Concentration (ppm) U and Th Concentrations Th Radionuclides U

32 Concentration in mg/kg Some REE in Minjingu PR Ce Eu La Nd Sm Tb Yb Rb Sb Rare Earth Elements(REE)

33 Concentration in mg/kg Heavy Metals Concentration Ag As Cd Co Cr Heavy Metals

34 IAEA HTGR Coordinated Research Project High U content Characterization of MPR Uranium and other valuable impurities (e.g. REE) can be sold and Cleaner fertilizer with less heavy metal content would be available for fertilization? Heavy metals can be removed? Cd, Cr? The focus being a comprehensive extraction and mineral product development Contribute to IAEA HTGR CRP knowledge base

35 i. Set by HTGR CRP objectives ii. iii. iv. Objectives Characterization of the Minjingu phosphate rock and Derived Products [Elemental Concentrations- Soft and Hard, dating? ] Petrographic studies Estimation of heavy metal loads and Mobility of fertilizer-derived uranium to agricultural land and water bodies

36 Conclusion Uranium mining requires special attention as compared to other minerals Management of both conventional risk and a radiological risk is challenging International support is important-no need to re-invent the wheel Higher level of community concern in relation to uranium mining than with other mining activities Ideas are borne out in the gathering like this.if consolidates becomes Actions International support in terms of Experience and Best practices is a key

37

38 Thank you for Your Attention