A contaminated mine at a West Coast ghost town will be cleaned up this month.
Nine workers dressed in full protective gear and wearing respirators will set to work at Waiuta, leaving it safe for visitors to stay on site for about an hour.
The $3.1million project to clean up the highly contaminated Prohibition mine, officially one of the most contaminated sites in the world, was put on hold a year ago.
Arsenic levels at the abandoned gold town's mine are among the highest recorded anywhere in the world at 400,000 parts per million on land, or 500 times the safe level.
Department of Conservation acting operations director Robert Dickson said up to nine people would be working on the site, though some phases would require fewer people.
They needed to be suited up in protective overalls with skin covered and wearing positive-pressure respirators.
The condensing tower would be laid down on the ground, rolled into a low-lying area, then crushed and buried in mullock.
"Too much of the tower has rusted over the years for it to be left standing safely.''
The remediation work should be complete by the end of the year.
Mr Dickson said once it was done, the clean-up should be to a standard that made it safe for visitors.
"We expect that most people would spend about an hour there looking at the historic remains and learning about the industrial processes that occurred at the site.''
The most heavily contaminated material that poses the greatest risk to people will be removed, treated and disposed of at a specialist treatment facility in Canterbury. The surface of the site will then be scraped off and the material put in a low-lying area that will be lined and capped with mullock from the old mine workings. Then the whole site will be covered over with mullock.
This will protect people, while the iron in the mullock will bind with the arsenic and stop it leaching.
The site will be landscaped to "encourage the level of activity appropriate for the site''.
It will be extensively tested and monitored post-remediation to ensure that the public can visit safely.
The project is being funded jointly by Doc and the Ministry for the Environment.
