SKA Project – Guidelines for Mining Activities

Australia is competing internationally to be the country in which the next-generation radio-telescope (the Square Kilometre Array or SKA) will be built, at a capital cost of some $1.8 billion.  Australia has selected the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) site located between Meekatharra, Cue and Yalgoo (See figure 1).

The facility will require protection from electro-magnetic interference (referred to as Radio-Frequency Astronomical Interference [RFAI]) caused by electric motors, generators, alternators, radio transmitters, welders and in fact anything that creates or conducts electricity. 

In order to protect the radio-quiet operation of the telescope, the Government has decided that no mining tenement will be allowed within approximately 30km of the core of the facility, and the Department of Mines and Petroleum (DMP) is implementing the Government’s intent. 

To locate a suitable site in Western Australia, considerable work was undertaken in the 1990s by the Geological Survey of Western Australia in collaboration with the CSIRO.  As a consequence, in order to avoid unnecessarily tying up prospective land, the present areas were selected where the mineral potential was relatively low, based on the information available at the time.  The core site and areas surrounding it are currently (2007) exempt from applications for tenements pursuant to Section 19 of the Mining Act 1978.  Further from the centre of the MRO out to 80 km is a “Mineral Resource Management Area” (shown in DMP’s Tengraph tenement mapping system as File Notation Area 7618), and all tenements or those parts of tenements that occur within this zone will have a condition imposed by the Minister for Resources stating:

• 1. Prior to carrying out any on-ground activities, the licensee or lessee developing a plan of activities to ensure that electromagnetic emissions from those activities will not interfere with the radio-quiet requirements of the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory. The plan shall be submitted to the Australian SKA Coordination Committee’s ‘Coordinator for Land Management Issues’ at the Department of Mines and Petroleum (DMP) for approval by the Director-General of DMP.
  
• 2. The approved plan to be included with any Programme of Work or mining proposal submitted to the DMP for approval under the Mining Act.

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The proposed radio telescope will be some 50 times more sensitive than any currently existing radio-telescope and will enable astronomers to look back in time towards when the universe was created in the “Big Bang”.

The design of the radio telescope is still being researched, and so its eventual design and appearance is currently evolving.  It is likely to consist of a large number of small structures in groups covering perhaps a hectare at any individual site and while most of these groups will be concentrated in the proposed MRO they will ultimately be spread or arrayed across Australia and into New Zealand.  The total area for radio-wave collection is planned to be one square kilometre.  The receivers will be linked with a supercomputer, probably to be sited in Geraldton, which will integrate all the radio signals from all the receivers and process them into usable information for astronomers to interpret.  This is leading-edge technology, and the facility will be using technology that is still to be developed.

As humankind develops, our activities create increasing amounts of more powerful RFAI emissions.  This interference is making it much harder to site radio telescopes.  The Murchison is amongst the last regions in the world where the interference levels are still low, and therefore it is a responsible position for the State to adopt to support international research by designating a site that it will protect from future interference.  However, protection of this site will impose some restrictions on other users of the area by requiring them to limit or to not create radio emissions, in accordance with management prescriptions.  The Western Australian Government has accepted that these restrictions are an acceptable compromise in order to have the SKA radio telescope built in this State.  Considerable studies have led to the identification of the site as being one that will impose minimum restrictions on the minimum number of people.

Ultimately legislation will be passed to protect the MRO area from activities that would interfere with the SKA. 

The core of the MRO will be an area of about 30 km radius.  Tenements will be prohibited within this zone while the MRO is operating.  For the immediate future the Section 19 Exemption that is currently in place will prohibit any applications for tenements within that and a larger area.  Surrounding the core area will be the Mineral Resource Management Area within which the Minister for Resources will impose conditions on tenements in order to minimize mineral resources activities impacting on the MRO operations.

Although construction of the actual SKA will not commence until after 2011, a large amount of scientific investigation, preparatory test-work, and construction and operation of precursor receivers and equipment will be required to assist in the eventual design of the MRO.  These projects, including the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) Project, will develop radio telescopes that are major research developments in their own right.  Experiments commenced in 2006 will go on into the future and the equipment will require similar protection from RFAI as the eventual SKA project will need.

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Any stray radio waves that radiate from equipment within the vicinity of the radio telescope receivers may cause RFAI that will interfere with the signals from outer space.  These radio waves may be designed (such as mobile radios or phones, radio base stations or other scientific equipment) or accidental (from electric motors or generators, arc-welders, electronic equipment).

The purpose of the Mining Act conditions is to ensure that if any emissions are generated by mining operators, they are firstly known by the operators of the radio telescope and, secondly, are minimized or restricted in time or location.  The operation of the radio telescope does not necessarily require the elimination of all radio waves, but to create an area that is ‘radio quiet’ in the frequencies that are important to the astronomers.

Exploration activities

These are usually of relatively short duration, though the activities could occur over a broad area.  It will be a requirement that prior to accessing the area, the explorationist will contact the appropriate people within DMP and discuss the activities and likely management required for the duration of the exploration.  Exploration programs normally proceed in a series of stages.  Early stages, using hand-held or small-scale equipment, are less likely to emit unacceptable levels of  RFAI than later stages that are likely to use heavy drilling rigs and high-powered alternators for camps.

Details of abatement methods are likely to evolve with time as operations proceed and experience is gained by both the explorationists and the MRO management team.  Amelioration methods could involve restricting the use of types of equipment to certain times or periods or using equipment behind shields, inside Faraday Cages (such as, in worst-case scenarios, inside steel mesh cages or steel sheds) or by other means to reduce emissions.  It may effectively prohibit the use of some types of equipment that emit high-energy RFAI.

An unknown factor (at least initially) will be the effect of emissions from the use of some active geophysical equipment.  For example, EM equipment that is designed to generate strong fields may have to be analyzed to determine if that item of equipment will create major difficulties for the MRO.  It will be important for users of this equipment, whether airborne or ground-based, to work with the managers of the MRO in order to assess the likely effects and minimize impacts on the SKA project or related operations.

Mining activities

Compliance with the tenement condition will require early consultation with DMP and thence potentially with the CSIRO to ensure the design and layout of any minesite activities, especially those involving radio communications, will not interfere with the operation of the radio telescope.  Design and erection of buildings and equipment at any minesite that may be located within the Mineral Resource Management Area is likely to have a fundamental effect on the emission of RFAI from the mining plant and equipment.  While it may be possible to retro-actively change plant and equipment after it is installed and operating, early attention to design could reduce impacts and the costs of essential amelioration activities.  Although the CSIRO can provide advice on RFAI matters, there are also consultant electronic consultants who are able to undertake designs or provide detailed advice at an early stage to meet these requirements.

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To discuss issues and to file a Radio Quiet Management Plan for approval, please contact:

Mr Mike Freeman
Project Manager
Legislation and Compliance
Department of Mines and Petroleum
Ph. +61 8 9222 3502
mike.FREEMAN@dmp.wa.gov.au

For technical enquiries, address an email request to CSIRO:

The ATNF Frequency Manager
atnf-spectrum@csiro.au 

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