The Queenstown Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company, established in 1893, was the dominant copper mining company of the Tasmanian West Coast from until 1994. It produced more than a million tonnes of copper, 750 tonnes of silver and 45 tonnes of gold. A by-product of these commodities were vast quantities of mine waste including approximately 53 Mt of waste rock , tailings and slag material, the latter two of which were disposed of to the Queen-King river system between 1916 and 1994. In total, 95 Mt of sulphidic tailings, 1.4 Mt of smelter slag and nearly 10 Mt of mine-impacted top soil were discharged. Currently, these pyritic waste materials reside in overbank, river bottom and delta deposits associated with the Queen-King rivers and delta
History
Publication title
Proceedings from the Resources for Future Generations