The Ranger uranium mine in the Kakadu National Park has started again after gaining approval from authorities after a shut-down following a spill.

Ranger stopped operations in late-2013 after holding tanks split and spilled an acidic radioactive slurry over a large area.

The Northern Territory Department of Mines and Energy and the Commonwealth Minister for Industry have given the written approval for the mine to being operations again.

Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) chief executive Andrea Sutton says the company will not neglect its responsibility as the mine’s owner to protect workers, the local community and environment.

“We recognise that an important aspect of the recovery from this incident will be restoration of that confidence in our processing operations,” she said.

“The measures we have undertaken are designed to prevent anything similar happening in the future and to reassure our stakeholders and the broader community of the integrity of our operation.

“We expect the processing plant to return to normal production levels during the third quarter of this year.

“ERA will continue to work closely with the government and our stakeholders as we progressively increase our production.”

ERA says its total production of uranium oxide for 2014 will be between 1,100 tonnes and 1,500 tonnes, and that the stoppage led to a loss of between $120 million and $140 million.

Environmentalists are furious that key documents including independent investigation reports were not made public prior to Northern Territory and Commonwealth approval for the restart.

The restart comes at the same time as a government report reveals ERA lost the paperwork relating to previous inspections of diesel tanks on site.

Inspection were enforced after a major diesel spill in 1995, but the company says the reports covering both five-yearly external inspections and monthly inspections for Diesel tanks A and B are “missing”.

The revelation was made in the Ranger Restart capability report, but the Government says it will not influence the new efforts to get work started again. 

Meanwhile, the low international uranium price has forced one new player out of the game.

United Uranium has abandoned several exploration licences in Western Australia, saying “junior resource companies and in particular uranium focussed companies, are currently ‘unloved’ by the investment community”, and that it would move instead into the property market.