Is thorium a major problem? Technically speaking - no. It's very mildly radioactive, emitting an alpha particle to become Radium-228 (okay, yes, I'm talking specifically about Th-232 here, which makes up 99.98% of natural thorium). Because of its very long half life, the radiation emitted by thorium (including child decay products) is low. It doesn't form easily soluble salts, so it doesn't migrate very much in groundwater.
But politically, anything radioactive - no matter how mildly - is toxic. The moment you mention "radioactive materials", the general public starts reacting emotionally, rather than intellectually. That means that any company that is mining an ore containing radioactive byproducts in any sort of significant quantity has to have a plan in place to handle it.
Frankly, I don't really care too much what that plan is, in the context of thorium. What matters is that the company needs to have a plan; it needs to be provided to the relevant authorities (whether they be the Angolan government or the UK government); and the authorities need to sign off on it. I have looked - admittedly, not particularly deeply - and have not found any mention of such a plan. At this stage of the game, that is deeply concerning. Not because I expect such a plan to be difficult to produce, gain approval for, and implement, but because it's a part of the due diligence the company needs to have done before mining and processing begins. Its absence does not inspire confidence.
Now, if you can point me to where the company has publicised its plan - or even the existence of its plan - to manage the thorium in the tailings, I'll be more than happy to concede the point. But it's not good enough to simply say, "Oh, it'll go back where it came from, there's no problem", because politically, it is a problem. The tailings here would meet the IAEA's definition of radioactive materials, which means that the Angolan government needs to give a formal tick to that plan, assuming that that is the plan. Annoying, yes, but that's the political reality when dealing with anything that is measurably radioactive. Simply handwaving that issue away is not good enough. Not for a company that claims to be on the verge of construction and production.
Expand
