Mining in Arkaroola

Mining Companies vs. Arkaroola and the Flinders Ranges

Mining in Arkaroola

As many folks already know, Arkaroola has a history with the mining industry. Over the past decade a few companies have owned the rights to mine the area for Uranium. Odd, as I heard on the observatory tour that Uranium only came from Uranus... but I digress.

Most recently it's Marathon Resources who has been trying to penetrate these hills, and what a classy bunch they are. They had the rights to explore a few years ago, at which time they were caught dumping hazardous materials on the very land they are trying to exploit. At that time, they were fined and their exploration lease was suspended for 2 years.

While Marathon would rather its constituents remain unaware that the quality of the Uranium in "them thar' hills" is not that impressive or even as profitable as other deposits around the country, they were still putting out reports to the contrary. Marathon does this so their investors believe in their profitability, which ultimately drives their stock price up.

This is what it all boils down to, Marathon isn't here to make their fortune on mining and selling Uranium off Arkaroola's land, rather, they are using the land and the promise of their own mining success to raise their Stock value. They are exploiting the land so they can actually mine the pockets of their investors.

What are we fighting for? There are many reasons Marathon, or any other company shouldn't be allowed to explore Arkaroola, most obvious of which is there impact on the plant and animal life. Bringing in trucks and machinery from the outside world can and will introduce new species to the untouched lands. This cacti, brought in by tourists from other parts of the country, has already gained a foothold in the surrounding areas.

22 July 2011 - On this day Arkaroola made history as the Premiere formally announced that Arkaroola would remain mine free. This was a great day for Arkaroola and a great day for present and future tourists to the region.

While Marathon doesn't want to admit that they won't be able to mine here, they are going to keep fighting this battle in vain. In the mean time, we can watch their share prices tumble like a boulder off Sillar's Lookout.

If you are interested in keeping up to date with Arkaroola's fight against mining check out www.savearkaroola.com.au