To clarify the article (BT 26 Aug); the rainfall and evaporation figures used to model the water balance in the tailings dam in the Environmental Assessment (EA) for the Dargues Reef gold mine are dangerously inaccurate.
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The figures used in the EA suggest that on average, annual total evaporation exceeds annual total rainfall by 890mm. On this basis, the EA claims that overflow from the tailings dam will be very rare.
In reality, annual evaporation at Braidwood exceeds rainfall at Majors Creek by an average of just 60mm (not 890mm.)
The same inaccurate figures were used (but not revealed to the public) to model the tailings dam as currently approved (pre proposed cyanide.)
Overspill of the proposed tailings dam as currently designed, with consequent release of dissolved toxic materials, is a virtual certainty not a rare event. And, as Dr. Beck said in his report, it is a question of when not if the sealer in the dam will fail.
I am not against the gold mine as such but I shudder to think of the long-term consequence for the Eurobodalla water supply if the government approves this “modification” to use cyanide at Majors Creek.
Roger Hosking
Braidwood
