Monday, 22 January, 2007

by Adrienne Francis
ABC Country Hour

A Top End resources company is considering using its excess mine water for agriculture.

Compass Resources expect to open its new copper, cobalt and nickel mine at Batchelor, by July of this year, and Tracker Tilmouth, the company's community relations manager, says the water the mine uses can do more than mining.

"The need for the mine at the moment is something like 55L per sec. The excess we think will be at least 200-300L per second. We have to keep the pit dry and we are then able to pump the de-watered water a couple of hundred yards. These are rough figures and we are waiting for a report on the hydrology model. We will use that excess water for fodder crops, or afforestation for carbon credit sequestration. That water will return to the aquifer anyway, cause it returns to the river."

"We are considering returning water to nearby landholders as well. We are considering running a pipeline to them to help them with their horticultural projects. You have to be careful about mucking about with the flow of the river. If we are pumping water all year round and upset the dry season flows we would be in problems.

"My recommendation is that we pump the water to another spot further down the river or to another spot on the Finniss. We are working closely with traditional owners and it will be an all of community approach rather than just the mining company."

"I think that the local existing exotic timbers tree-cropping venture was before it's time. Reforestation of denuded areas is a thing of the future and will help reduce carbon loss and give you a financial return on land that would normally be lost. We have a steering committee with the water and are installing monitoring systems. We think people have jumped the gun because of their experience with Woodcutters, and I think we are on a different aquifer, the northern aquifer."