Croydon remediation project
At its peak, the historic gold-mining town of Croydon was the fourth largest town in Queensland. Gold was discovered there in 1882 and Croydon Goldfield was proclaimed on 18 January 1886 with discoveries in the Tabletop area late in 1886.
- View a glossary of mining terms used on this page.
More recently, large-scale gold mining was conducted at mines to the north-east of Croydon, including the Federation and La Perouse mines. Mining ceased in 1991 and the parent company was dissolved in 1994, forgoing rehabilitation liabilities.
The mining leases were re-offered by tender. As a condition of the lease agreement, the successful company started rehabilitation of the processing plant area, tailings dam and waste rock dumps, as well as other disturbances from mining and exploration. However dwindling reserves and poor prices resulted in the operation finally ceasing in 1997.
The Federation site consists of 2 open-cut pits, an underground portal or entrance, heap leach pads, waste rock stockpiles, unmaintained infrastructure, the Golden Gate tailings storage facility and the Glencoe pit.
Currently, there is a mining lease over part of the Federation site and we are working with the mining lease holder to manage the residual risks at the site.
Project snapshot
Region: North Queensland
Location: 520km west of Cairns and 150km south-east of Normanton in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Latitude -18.096821, Longitude 142.302307
Commodity: Gold
Mining type: Open cut and underground
Date of abandonment: October 2004
Status: Care and maintenance, partial re-commercialisation
Native title interest: Tagalaka People represented by the Tagalaka Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC
Public land registers: Listed on the Environmental Management Register
Photo gallery
Key risks
Health and safety risks associated with:
- open pit, waste rock stockpile and historic shaft/mine entrance
- unstable waste rock stockpiles.
Environmental risks associated with:
- poor-quality water as a result of acid and metalliferous drainage from mine pits, low-grade ore stockpiles, leach heaps, waste rock dumps and tailings storage facility
- ingestion of mineral precipitates (salts) and mine-affected water outside stock water guidelines by livestock
- water entering the tailings storage facility if the cap is damaged by erosion or settlement.
Completed works
- Fencing to exclude cattle from Federation pit and waste stockpiles, low-grade ore stockpiles and waste rock dumps
- Installation of pump systems to capture acid and metalliferous drainage water to avoid release to the environment from the Federation pit, low-grade ore stockpiles and waste rock dumps
- Re-commercialised areas around the Federation pit and waste rock piles to an industry partnership. This is allowing hazardous waste material to be processed and disposed of appropriately
- Capping the tailings storage facility to limit water entering the tailings generating acid and metalliferous drainage and to stop windblown dust
Planned works
- Ongoing care and maintenance activities
- Continuing industry partnership to manage the site