Caterpillar Inc Heavy Equipment CSR by GineersNow Engineering GineersNow Engineering Magazine November 2016 | Page 41

Researchers from the University of
Maine believe that the increasing
mining activity in Australia
causes the increase of uranium
concentrations in the Antarctic
today. The mining activity involved
is the open pit mining in Australia.
The results of this study will be
published later on in the next
issue of Atmospheric Environment
Journal.
Australia has around 40% of the
world’s uranium reserves but
despite the high percentage of
reserves, this industry is not a
major employer in Australia. The
country exports almost 7,000
tonnes of yellow cake annually.
According to the lead researcher
Mariusz Potocki, who is a doctoral
candidate and research assistant
with the Climate Change Institute:
“Uranium concentrations in the
ice core increased by as much
as 10^2 between the 1980s and
2000s, accompanied by increased
variability in recent years.”
He and his team also adds:
“Since other land-source dust
elements don’t show similar
large increases in the ice core,
and since the increased uranium
concentrations are enriched
above levels in the Earth’s
crust, the source of uranium is
attributed to human activities
rather atmospheric circulation
changes.”
If the uranium concentration
continues to increase, this will
surely affect a lot of health issues
including genetic mutations,
cancer and other major health
problems.
NOVEMBER 2016
Mining Engineering and Its Importance
41