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| Images of Toxic Red Mud Storage
in Hungary and Western Australia |
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The toxic red mud waste from alumina refineries is in focus
with
red mud from the Ajka alumina refinery in Hungary flooding the town of Kolontar and killing nine people. The Ajka
alumina refinery is 300,000 tonnes annual capacity. Western Australia has the largest concentration of bauxite mining and alumina
refining in the world, with 12 million tonnes of alumina
produced at Pinjarra, Wagerup, Kwinana and Worsley. The
total area of residue disposal in 2009 was 2002 hectares, or
equivalent in area to 1,000 AFL football ovals. This makes
Western Australia the toxic red mud capital of the world. |
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Ajka Alumina Refinery
(300,000 tonnes annual production of alumina) in Hungary; the refinery is shown on the
right and the red mud storage on the left, being the source
of the toxic red mud that destroyed Kolontar. Please
note the
perspective for this image of Ajka is 30% larger than the
images of refineries in Western Australia, thus the images
of refineries and residue storage in WA look about 30%
smaller than they are relative to Ajka. |
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| Above image shows Worsely
Alumina Refinery (3,100,000
tonnes annual production of alumina), the refinery is
surrounded by toxic red mud processing and storage.The
possible sites for location of an alumina refinery in the
Shire of Manjimup are hilly country with streams in valleys,
as at Worsley. These are high risk locations for processing
and storage of toxic red mud. |
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