JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Following an environmental assessment, uranium developer Toro Energy has released the environmental scoping document (ESD) for the planned extension of the company’s wholly-owned Wiluna uranium project, in Western Australia .

This followed prior approval by the state and federal governments for the establishment of a processing facility and the start of mining at Wiluna’s Centipede and Lake Way deposits.

The ESD provided information about Toro’s plans to integrate two additional deposits at Millipede and Lake Maitland into an expanded Wiluna project and identified the key environmental issues to be addressed during further government assessment of the project.

Interest parties would be able to make comments about the document to the Western Australian Protection Authority until October 20 and Toro would be required to respond to these inputs before producing a final ESD.

This would guide the preparation of a Public Environmental Review, which continued the government’s assessment and approval process.

Toro MD Dr Vanessa Guthrie welcomed the latest public consultation, noting that it was an important element of the environmental assessment process.

“We welcome the opportunity to discuss our plans for the wider Wiluna project with the community and to explain how the development of the Millipede and Lake Maitland deposits can be undertaken responsibly,” she noted.

Guthrie added that “much” was already known about the environmental impacts of mining these deposits.

“Millipede is immediately adjacent to the Centipede deposit, which was approved in October 2012 and April 2013 by the WA and federal governments, while the environmental conditions at the Lake Maitland deposit have been extensively studied prior to its acquisition by Toro in late 2013.

“Toro’s overarching strategy for the extended project remains to use one central processing plant adjacent to the Centipede deposit to reduce the regional footprint and environmental impact by avoiding the duplication of operations and infrastructure,” she said in a statement.

Toro remained confident that the environmental assessment process would be completed in 2016.