By Rob Taylor
CANBERRA, Australia--The world's largest weapons test range in
the remote Australian outback will be opened to mining after the
country's parliament agreed Thursday to laws easing access to an
area larger than the U.S. state of Ohio.
The Woomera Prohibited Area in the country's arid center
stretches more than 49,000 square miles and contains an estimated
$35 billion of mineral resources.
Some areas, so-called "red zones," will be retained solely for
defense use. Other zones, yet to be defined, will allow access to
mine workers, tourists and others during specified times of the
year.
Woomera has been inaccessible to the public since 1947, when
Australia and its U.S. and U.K. allies used the range for Cold War
rocket and nuclear tests. Last year, British defense scientists
used the range in South Australia state to test BAE Systems PLC's
Taranis unmanned stealth drone, which is being developed to carry
bombs and missiles while traveling at supersonic speed, undetected
by radar.
Australia's conservative government has agreed to allow miners
to explore for iron ore, uranium and gold deposits thought to lie
within Woomera's boundaries, as the country seeks to encourage more
mining investment and reinvigorate its economy.
"The legislation will improve the management of the Woomera
Prohibited Area in a way that will meet defense-testing
requirements while also giving greater certainty of access for
other sectors, particularly the resources sector, to invest in
operations," a spokesman for Australia's Defense Minister, David
Johnston, told The Wall Street Journal.
Mining-industry representatives weren't immediately available
for comment. The chief executive of the South Australia Chamber of
Mines and Energy, Jason Kuchel, previously has said that
unexploited resources buried in the area could exceed expectations
and top 1 trillion Australian dollars in value.
Major mines already in the area include the Challenger gold mine
operated by Kingsgate Consolidated Ltd., Arrium Mining's Peculiar
Knob iron ore mine and OZ Minerals Ltd.'s Prominent Hill mine.
In 2009, the Labor government blocked China Minmetals
Non-Ferrous Metals Co. Ltd. from buying an Oz Minerals Ltd. copper
and gold mine in nearby Prominent Hill because of security
fears.
"The new framework maintains the primacy of the Woomera
Prohibited Area as a national-security and defense asset and sets
up a coexistence scheme that allows access by nondefense users
subject to conditions," the spokesman said.
Civilians entering the area will have to apply with defense
officials for a permit when weapons testing isn't under way. Such
applications will assess possible security risks of entrants.
Still, the luster of mineral resources trapped within Woomera's
borders offsets the complication of restricted access. Miners would
be excluded from areas outside red zones only for periods between
14 and 70 days, and weapons testing would take place under
timeshare arrangements with the military.
The government also plans to open to tourists parts of Woomera
that hosted British nuclear weapons tests between 1955 and 1963. It
has agreed to excise these rehabilitated nuclear test sites--known
as Section 400--from the area at the request of the local
indigenous Maralinga Tjarutja people, who hope to run tours.
The Woomera range is prized by weapons developers because of its
relative freedom from electronic-signals interference, large size
and extremely remote location, making it almost impossible to
observe military activity there. Weapons ranges of similar size in
northern Australia are used by thousands of U.S. Marines and
Australian soldiers each year for several months in a
defense-training arrangement that is being expanded to include U.S.
ships and aircraft.
Write to Rob Taylor at rob.taylor@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires