Abstract:

The Northern Territory (NT) Department of Industry, Tourism, and Trade (DITT) has developed a preferred final rehabilitation strategy for the former Rum Jungle mine site. Rehabilitation will involve backfilling the Main Pit with the highest sulphide-containing materials relocated from the existing waste rock dumps (WRDs) and constructing two new above grade Waste Storage Facilities (WSFs) to contain residual mine waste materials. Further details on the strategy and other aspects of the Rum Jungle Rehabilitation Project are described in two supporting papers (Paper 1 and Paper 2) for ICARD 2024.

The current paper (Paper 3) describes key modelling results from the numerical flow and contaminant transport model (“groundwater model”) developed to support the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the site. The groundwater model simulates “current conditions”, which have existed since initial rehabilitation in the 1980s, and predicts future conditions during the construction phase of rehabilitation and post-rehabilitation phase. This paper also details the simulated performance of a Site-Wide Seepage Interception System (SIS), which will be operated during the construction phase of rehabilitation, and the path forward for rehabilitation planning.

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Dr. Christoph Wels