Rainbow Beach remediation project

Mineral sand mining and processing started at Rainbow Beach in 1965 and continued until 1976, with the dry mineral processing plant demolished in 1987.

Since 2011, we have completed various contaminated land assessment and remediation activities to manage the environmental impacts of the past mining operations. Three land parcels have been remediated and removed from the Environmental Management Register.

The Rainbow Beach site consisted of mineral sand stockpiles and contaminated areas, a water dam, material containing asbestos and remnant processing plant.

View a glossary of mining terms used on this page.

Photo gallery

Key risks

Health and safety risks associated with:

• naturally occurring radioactive material stockpiles
• materials containing asbestos.

Environmental risks associated with potential groundwater contamination.

Completed works

• Remediation of Lot 23 on Plan 15724, Lot 6 on Plan 23083 and Lot 7 on Plan SP314789 and removal from the Environmental Management Register
• Removal of more than 20,000m³ of mineral sand
• Removal of 1,900m³ of asbestos-contaminated concrete waste and sand
• Encapsulation of residual material containing asbestos in an on-site containment cell
• Public access restricted

Future management

• Monitoring and maintenance
• No further site works are currently scheduled, however future site management options may include:
  • Relocation of additional heavy mineral concentrate from the southern portion of the site. The heavy mineral concentrate that exists in the southern portion of the site was formed from earlier mineral sand processing. We've completed analysis on the stockpile and the mineral breakdown which shows a high proportion of recoverable minerals contained within. See the heavy mineral assemblage of the stockpile (XLSX, 11.1 KB) .
  • Further parcels of land to be removed from the Environmental Management Register