The life of Ranger 1 uranium mine in Australia: Geology, resources, production and rehabilitation

The tectonic setting of Ranger uranium deposit, also ARUF, is Pine Creek orogen, which was developed from the Paleoproterozoic rift in the Archean craton of North Australia. The orebodies lie under the interface between the Neoarchaean-Paleoproterozoic crystallization-metamorphic basement and Late Paleo-Mesoproterozoic Kombolgie red bed formations. There are three epochs of uranium mineralization, which are U1:1720~1680Ma, U2:1420~1040Ma and U3:474±6Ma. U1 is the main mineralization epoch.The deposit was discovered by aerial radioactivity survey in late 1969. No. 1 and No. 3 orebodies were delineated by exploration in the 1970's, with a total resource of 124681t@0.23% U₃O₈. From October 1980 to December 2018, a total of 128739t U₃O₈ was produced by open-pit mining. Since fiscal year 1985, ERA has sold 119882t U₃O₈ from Ranger uranium mine to the nuclear energy market in the world. In 2009, No. 3 deep orebody was discovered, with reserves of 43857t@0.22% U₃O₈, which will be exploited by underground mining. It is expected that the geomorphological landscape and ecological environment of the mining area will be restored by 2026.This paper further discusses the prospecting direction of Proterozoic unconformity uranium deposits in northern Australia, the significance of sustained and stable uranium mining and production, and the political and legal issues that need attention in investing in Australian uranium mining. These contents can provide references for China's mining enterprises and geological exploration units to rationally deploy Australian uranium exploration and development.