South Australia’s Environment Protection Authority (EPA) says a manufacturing fault is likely to blame for the leakage of thousands of litres of sulphuric acid from a tanker truck.

Key points:

  • A tanker has leaked 4,500 litres of sulphuric acid across regional South Australia
  • It was on its way from Port Pirie to the outback Beverley uranium mine
  • The EPA says the spill had caused no apparent environmental damage, possibly thanks to rain

The truck was loaded with sulphuric acid at the Nyrstar lead smelter in Port Pirie on July 22.

According to the EPA’s director of regulation Andrew Pruszinski, two days later, the truck left for the Beverley uranium mine in the state’s north-east, and was about 70 kilometres north of Yunta — or about 270 km from Port Pirie — when the driver was alerted to a problem.

“On the way to the mine site … [a] driver, who was in the truck behind the tanker, noticed something wasn’t right with the truck in front,” Mr Pruszinski said.

The valve failure had caused 4,500 litres of sulphuric acid to drain from one of the tanker’s internal partitions during the journey.

The tanker was on its way to the Beverley uranium mine, north of Yunta.(

Supplied: Geomartin (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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Mr Pruszinski said the nuts that held the bolts in place, which secured the valve to the tanker, were missing a special adhesive and had rattled loose.

“The tanker was actually very new, so it was a fault with manufacture,” Mr Pruszinski said.

Trucking company retraces route

As the transport company tracked all its vehicles with GPS technology, it was able to retrace the tanker’s route exactly.

“The trucking company was able to … inspect all of the road — and places where the truck had stopped — for any damage that may have been caused from the sulphuric acid,” Mr Pruszinski said.

“They were also able to collect samples of water puddles — there’d been quite a lot of rain at that time. 

“There was no evidence of damage for the entire route.”

He said that the rain had likely diluted the acid, reducing its potential to cause serious environmental damage.

The Bevereley mine is near the Four Mile deposit in the northern Flinders Ranges.(

Supplied: Alliance Resources

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No penalties for driver or company

The EPA said the driver was properly trained and the company had followed best practice for the transport of sulphuric acid.

“In addition, the trucking company is reviewing all of its tankers that they have in stock as well.”

Sulphuric acid is a by-product of smelting, and is routinely transported by road across Australia.

The EPA declined to reveal the trucking company nor the trailer manufacturer involved in the incident.